


Regroup and Rebuild

by violethowler



Series: Acolytes of Chaos [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Basically everyone dealing with what comes after now that Xehanort's finally gone, Because Vanitas' time with Xehanort wasn't pretty, Drabble Collection, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Humor, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Multi, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Pansexual Vanitas, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Slice of Life, Sora and Ventus are siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-03-01
Packaged: 2019-03-21 13:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 32
Words: 34,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13741770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violethowler/pseuds/violethowler
Summary: Xehanort is dead and Maleficent has gone into hiding to rebuild her armies. The worlds have entered a new era of peace, but nobody ever said it'd be all sunshine and rainbows. A series of interconnected One-Shots taking place after Kingdom Hearts 3 as everyone tries to deal with the fallout of Xehanort's actions. Sequel to The Xehanort War.





	1. Second Chances

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this on my fanfiction.net account a couple years ago, and since I'm crossposting all my fanfics from that site onto my AO3 account, this is the next one to be re-posted. This is a sequel to my earlier KH3 prediction fic The Xehanort War, so go read that first or else you'll be horribly confused. Something that'll be helpful to know if you haven't started the previous fic in this series yet is that nothing in X, Back Cover, or Unchained X/Union Cross after the first battle against Ava happens in this fic. The same goes for the entirety of 0.2. The only things I really borrowed from X that came out after I started writing this series were the names of the Foretellers.

#### Shibuya – Scramble Crossing

#### August 1, 2015

Isa opened his eyes to find himself in a bustling city. Immediately he knew something was wrong. He shouldn't even be alive for one thing. When Xehanort had turned him into one of his vessels, he'd implemented a failsafe that fatally wounded him when that woman, Master Aqua, attempted to remove the fragment of the old man's heart being used to control him. He remembered reconciling with Lea while he bled out on the sands of the Keyblade Graveyard. He remembered standing before the judges of the afterlife waiting for them to decide where his soul would go.

A buzzing in the pocket of his Organization robes snapped him back to the present. Focus, Isa, he told himself. Stay calm, and you'll find your answers. Fishing his hands into his pockets, he was surprised when his gloved fingers came into contact with a hard rectangular object. He withdrew his hand to find himself holding what appeared to be a pocket-sized computer screen. His eyes narrowed when he read the message being displayed.

"Reach 104," it read.

"You have 60 minutes. Fail and Face erasure.

-The Reapers"

"So this is the Reaper's Game, then," a familiar voice commented from behind him. The former Number VII turned around to find Ludor, the human self of Luxord, standing behind him holding a similar mini screen, likely holding the same message. Immediately, Isa remembered what had happened. An angel by the name of Joshua had interrupted his judgement and offered him a chance to atone for his sins. Common knowledge dictated that there were three parts of the afterlife, Elysium for the good, Tartarus for the evil, and Ashphodel for everyone else.

But what most (including Isa and Ludor until now) were unaware of was that there was a fourth component, the Reaper's Game. A week-long event in which the souls of the dead competed for a second chance at life. Considering everything he'd done under Xehanort's influence he'd practically jumped at the chance to atone for his sins.

"It would seem that way," he replied as he walked over to the former Gambler of Fate. "And from what Joshua told us about the rules of the Game, we need to form a pact in order to combat the Noise."

"Sounds like a plan then," the former Number X said with a smile as he placed the small screen back in his pocket. "So, Isa," he went on with a sly smile, knowing how the former Luna Diviner always preferred to work alone. "Will you make a pact with me?"

"It's the only way to make it out of the Game alive," Isa replied. "Very well." As soon as the words left his mouth, the former Organization members were surrounded by a blue light. They blinked in perfect sync with each other as the light faded. Immediately, each felt a burning sensation in their left hand and looked down to find timers branded on their palms counting down the seconds remaining for them to complete the objective. Having been informed of the rules of the game beforehand, they immediately checked their pockets and started cycling through pins until they found the ones that activated their old weapons.

Isa suppressed a shudder as his old claymore materialized in his hand. Holding his signature weapon from his days in the Organization brought up a slew of unpleasant memories. His increasing distance from Lea. His disgusting treatment of Xion. Oh how he wished he could go back in time and prevent all of this. To smack some compassion into his past self. But alas, without the Key to Return Hearts, any attempt at removing the fragment of Xehanort's heart within him would only lead to his premature demise, thereby greatly affecting the timeline. As much as he wanted to undo what he'd done, he wasn't stupid.

With a nod to Ludor, they began walking through the streets in search of either a place with a map of the city or another player who they could ask for directions. Whichever they came across first. As they walked through the streets of what Joshua had referred to as the city of Shibuya, Isa's resolve to atone for his crimes only grew. He would win the game, get back to Radiant Garden, reconcile with Lea, and make amends for everything that he'd done. While his self-confidence had taken a severe beating thanks to his possession at the hands of Xehanort, he wasn't going to throw away a second chance when it presented itself to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I start with the explanations, a few comments on the accuracy of this chapter in regards to the TWEWY mythos. I know not all of the parts shown in the Isa and Ludor chapters are going to be accurate with the game, but the Kingdom Hearts series always applies Broad Strokes in regards to the canonicity of Final Fantasy games and I figure the actual TWEWY world wouldn't be that different. There would be most of the same basic elements, but some of the details would likely be tweaked to fit the KH mythos, so that's the route I'm taking.


	2. Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

#### Never Land – Shore

#### August 2, 2015

'This place looks amazing," Kairi said as she and Sora hauled their raft up onto the shores of Never Land. After taking a day to pack food and other supplies like hiking gear, they'd said goodbye to their parents and set sail on their old raft across the ocean. Since they were actually sailing and rowing instead of drifting aimlessly, unlike the message in a bottle she'd send him a couple years ago, it would only take them a day or two of sailing to reach their next destination.

Their destination turned out to be Never Land, and now that they were here, Sora was eager to finally take Kairi flying like he'd always wanted to. After making sure the raft was secure, they threw the backpacks full or food and equipment over their shoulders and marched off into the jungle. After a short hike, they emerged from the jungle into an open clearling coated in sweat from an afternoon of hiking. In the middle of the clearing was a large tree with a tunnel leading underground at the base of the roots.

Curious and eager to explore, the two of them got down on their hands and knees and crawled through the hole until they emerged into a large chamber carved out beneath the tree. On the other side of the room sat a large group of boys. Most of them were toddlers and dressed in an assortment of animal-themed jumpsuits. But the one who stood out from the rest of the younger boys was the one wearing a green tunic and darker green tights. At the sound of the two Keyblade Wielders' entrance, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys turned around.

"Sora!" Peter Pan greeted cheerfully as he flew over to the two visitors. "It's great to see you and Kairi again."

"It's great to see you too, Peter," Sora replied before Kairi was properly introduced to Peter Pan the Lost Boys. Both knew who the other was, but she'd been comatose the last time Sora was in Never Land, so she and Peter Pan hadn't really met. Once all the introductions were out of the way, everyone sat down and started sharing stories. Sora and Kairi gave an edited account of their adventures, knowing that because of their youth and time in Never Land, Peter and the Lost Boys weren't likely to understand the complexities of the conflict with Xehanort, while the Lost Boys recounted their most recent adventures.

When one of the Lost Boys poked their head outside the hideout and announced that the sun was starting to set, Sora beamed and looked at Kairi before asking Peter where Tinkerbell was. The small fairy immediately flew over from where she'd been sitting up in the tree roots listening to everyone's stories. After introducing Kairi to Tinkerbell, Sora explained that he wanted to finally take Kairi flying. With a sprinkle of pixie dust, the young lovers walked outside with the Lost Boys right behind him.

"So how does this work exactly?" Kairi asked as Peter Pan and the Lost Boys took to the skies. She'd never flown before and while she remembered some of what was going on when her heart was in Sora's body all those years ago, she didn't exactly retain every last detail.

"It's easy," Sora replied reassuringly as he floated a few feet off the ground. "Just believe, and you can do it. All you've got to do is think happy thoughts."  _Well that's easy enough,_ Kairi thought to herself as she pictured her and Sora's first kiss in her mind. An instant later, and she was floating off the ground herself. With a delighted chuckle, she and Sora took off soaring across the night sky. Despite the recent changes in their lives, from Kairi being royalty to Sora's new dark powers, the two of them couldn't help but fell happy that right now they didn't have to worry about any of that. They held hands as they flew effortlessly through the clouds, catching up to Peter and the Lost Boys after only a few minutes of flying.

They spent the next several hours playing around in the clouds, creating a dazzling light show with a combination of Fire, Thunder, and Light-based spells in a mesmerizing display that lit up the night sky like a Christmas tree. Laughter and merriment filled the air as they let loose and had fun for the first time in over a month. With Xehanort gone and the Coalition mopping up the remnants of Maleficent's cabal, they were free to just kick back and actually enjoy themselves without having to run off and save the worlds every single day. It was nice to finally get some time off again.

When they were finally exhausted, they gently glided back down to the ground and unpacked their sleeping bags for the night. As they were unrolling their bags and blankets on the floor of the Lost Boy's hideout, Peter came over and to talk to them.

"It's great to see you guys again," the eternally young adventurer began nervously. "But, well... you guys have changed."

"Not really," Kairi replied. "Sora's still the same clueless dork he was three years ago." They all laughed despite Sora's protests. But as the laughter died down, Sora realized what Peter Pan was really trying to say. People didn't age in Never Land, so for Peter Pan, and despite his love of staying young, he clearly missed Wendy and her brothers, so seeing Sora and Kairi having aged so much was an uncomfortable reminder that while he and the Lost Boys stayed young, all the friends he made from outside of Never Land would continue to grow older.

"You're nervous about Wendy forgetting you, aren't you?" Sora asked, figuring that if his friend kept his fears bottled up, it'd just keep building up. Better to let it all out now. He looked over at Kairi and she nodded, confirming that she'd figured it out as well.

"It's not that," Peter admitted. "You never grow up in Never Land, and I like it here. But leaving just reminds me that it'll only work here. And if I stay out of Never Land too long, I'll grow up too, and then I won't ever be able to come back. I know you guys keep coming, but unless someone else brings you there, you can only reach Never Land by yourself if you believe."

"And you're scared that if you leave long enough to grow up you'll stop believing," Kairi finished as she understood what he was saying. "You're afraid that if you live a normal life, you'll forget all about this place. Don't worry. As long as you treasure your memories of Neverland, you'll never forget, and you'll always be able to come back whenever you want."

"Thanks," the Boy Who Never Grew Up replied with a chuckle. "You're really good at cheering people up, you know?"

"It's one of the greatest things about her," Sora said with a smile as he put his arm around his girlfriend's shoulder.

"I'm a Princess of Heart," she commented with a chuckle. "It comes with the territory."

"Wait," Peter Pan interrupted. "You're a princess!?"

"It's a long story," Kairi answered with a laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone questions how Kairi and Sora were able to get to Never Land on a raft, remember that in KH2 Kairi was able to put a message in a bottle in the ocean at the beginning of KH2 and it made its way to the Dark Meridian by the end of the game. On top of that, Captian Hook and Monstro travel between worlds just fine, so traveling by raft is a perfectly acceptable way to travel the Lanes Between in the KH universe.


	3. Reflecting and Redecorating

#### The Land of Departure – Throne Room

#### August 3, 2015

 _Why don't they just pick a design and get on with this?_ Vanitas wondered as he leaned against the wall behind the thrones while Terra, Ventus, and Aqua stood holding a blueprint of the castle against the back of one of the chairs and scribbling in things they wanted to change. With Aqua now ruler of the Land of Departure after Master Eraqus' death at the hands of Xehanort over a decade ago, she and her two friends had decided to do a little redecorating. Out of attachment to their home and respect for their dead mentor, they weren't going to change the place very much. But with twice as many active Key bearers now as there were back when they'd last been here, they felt that they needed to tweak the castle's interior a tiny bit in order to accommodate the increased traffic.

Despite the group hug that morning, Vanitas was just waiting for the moment when they decided that he was too dangerous to leave alive. Waiting to be declared an enemy of the Order. With Yen Sid dead, Aqua and Mickey were now the highest ranked out of all the Keyblade Wielders in the known worlds. While Keyblade Wielders in the past hadn't operated in a formal hierarchy for several thousand years, there were so many Keyblade Wielders now that someone had to step and take charge in terms of leadership and establishing a home base where they could meet, train, and share information. As the Master with the most seniority out of all of them, that someone had been Aqua.

To his continued surprise, however, none of Eraqus's three former apprentices treated him like the monster he'd pretended to be all those years ago. After a day of partying in Radiant Garden with the rest of the Coalition, they'd invited him back to the Land of Departure. To their home, that he'd played a part in destroying. Despite his every Xehanort-ingrained instinct telling him not to expose his weakness, he'd been coaxed into spilling the entire story of his life with Xehanort over dinner last night. The trio had initially been wary around him, as to be expected. He did help Xehanort cause all their problems, after all.

But after they heard about what his life with Xehanort was like, their wariness practically vanished. Now they actually… pitied him. Although the old man had always taught him to never accept pity from anyone, for the first time in his life, he actually felt happy. Here he was, a being of pure darkness, and they accepted him anyway. That wasn't to say that they'd completely forgiven him yet though. But while it would be a while before they completely forgave all his crimes, it felt good to have people actually giving him the chance to be more than Xehanort's pawn.

He looked up from his musings when Ven called his name, asking him to come over to where the trio were standing. Begrudgingly, Vanitas walked over and listened to Ven explaining their plan for reconfiguring the sleeping quarters. He was genuinely surprised when Ven asked what floor he wanted his room to be on.

"Are you serious?" he asked cautiously. "You're giving me my own bedroom?" While he would enjoy actually having a roof over his head, (Xehanort always expected him to sleep outdoors, completely exposed to the elements) he had figured he'd be on his own as far as food and housing was concerned. Being in the spotlight was starting to make him uncomfortable.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Ven asked. "Just because we haven't completely gotten over all the bad blood between us doesn't mean we're just going to kick you out to wander the universe looking for a place to live."  _And here they come with the sappy optimism as usual,_ Vanitas thought to himself.  _It could always be worse though. I could be back in the Graveyard stuck creating and killing Unversed in an endless cycle of pain. Compared to life with Xehanort, being treated like a decent living being for once in my short, miserable life is worth living with a bunch of saps._

A small smile crept its way across his face as he returned his attention to the outside world. As he animatedly discussed his ideas for his own personal living space, an unfamiliar feeling of warmth worked its way into his dark heart. After all these years, he had finally gotten the one thing he wanted more than forging the X – Blade: acceptance. It would take a while for him to break the habits that his training with Xehanort had beaten into him, and in the years to come he would always retain some snarky and sarcastic tendencies. But right now, stripped of the power to summon Unversed, he was finally free to be more than just a weapon in Xehanort's arsenal. He was his own person now.

Once everyone's decisions on the size and locations of their bedrooms had been decided, Aqua backed away from the throne, and a beam of light shot out from the Master's Defender, piercing the glowing Keyhole hidden on the back of the chair. With a low rumble, the castle began to shake, and a flash of light emanated from the Keyhole. When the light faded, the throne room looked exactly the same. However, when the group walked through the doorway leading to the castle's sleeping quarters, they found the first tower looking quite different.

Instead of a corridor snaking its way around the tower, the doorway opened up into a multi-level, open air chamber. In the center of the room, a large, glittering chandelier hung down from the ceiling, giving the room an open feel as the chain stretched up past three balconies on the upper floors. On the opposite side of the room, a doorway identical to the one they'd just walked through, leading to the outer tower that housed Master Eraqus' study, and now included an armory and a command center with a holographic computer display for visual aid when bringing everyone up to speed on a crisis.

Ventus enthusiastically raced up to where his room was on the top floor, in the exact same place it was before and untouched by the passing of time. Terra and Aqua headed to their rooms on opposite sides of the central area, leaving Vanitas to wander head upstairs to where his own room was located on the top floor, across from Ven's. Although the world altering mechanism could preserve furniture and objects, it couldn't create them from scratch. And so Vanitas opened the door to an empty room devoid of any comfort or warmth.

He was about to head off in search of the kitchen when Ven came in with a sleeping back over his shoulder.

"Here," he said as he handed Vanitas the bag. "That way you don't have to sleep on the bare floor until you get a bed. Sorry I didn't think of this earlier. I didn't exactly get a chance to really take everything in the last time I was here."

"And here I was beginning to think I was being left to my own devices," Vanitas replied sarcastically. But despite his snarky attitude, he appreciated the thought.

"Are you ever going to take that thing off?" Ven asked, referring to the muscle-like armor he wore at all times. "I know you can just dismiss the suit anytime you want, but don't you think you should change your clothes or something?" Despite his efforts to hide it, Vanitas' cheeks turned a slight shade of red at the second question. He could only hope that Ven wouldn't notice. Unfortunately, he did. "Wait a minute…" his other half began as he noticed his blushing. "Do you really not have any clothes?"

"No, Ven," he replied sarcastically. "I've just been wearing the same set of clothes under this thing for all four years of my existence." Had Ven been as literal-minded as he'd been after he'd lost his memories all those years ago, he wouldn't have noticed the sarcasm. Unluckily for Vanitas, Ven was a lot more perceptive than his darker half gave him credit for, and burst out cackling like a Hyena from the Pride Lands. "Don't laugh!" Vanitas snapped. "It's NOT funny!"

"Yes it is," Ven clutched his stomach from laughing so hard. "You're telling me that you wore that muscle suit for four years straight, and Xehanort never once bothered to buy you a pair of clothes." Ven gasped for breath from the hilarity of it. It was just so absurd it seemed unbelievable. But Vanitas' ever reddening cheeks told him everything he needed to know.

"Well Xehanort wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to budgeting finances," Vanitas retorted over Ven's continued laughter. "Construction materials for Dark City and the Castle That Never Was didn't pay for themselves, you know. He could have focused on building his new base first but no, he had to spend all his Munny on one hundred twenty black coats for his precious Organization, forcing me to beg, steal, and seduce just to put food in my mouth."

"Alright," Ven gasped as he finally stopped laughing. "Alright. We've still got a few hours left until Terra attempts to cook dinner, so let's head over to Twilight Town and get you some clothes."

"I don't exactly have Munny overflowing from my nonexistent pockets, you know," Vanitas replied.

"Don't worry about it," Ven said as they walked downstairs. "Master Eraqus kept a stockpile of Munny for expenses. Getting you your first clothes counts as expenses." They reached the first floor to find Terra and Aqua lying on the couch locked in one long kiss.  _Yeesh,_ Vanitas thought to himself.  _Ven told me they liked each other for years but I didn't expect them to be catching up for lost time so fast. We've been back here for only a day and they're one torn piece of clothing away from going at it like rabbits._

"Umm…" Ven said nervously. "We're heading to Twilight Town to do some shopping. We'll be back before dinner." Aqua silently flashed them a thumbs up.

"Hurry," Vanitas commented as they turned to the door to the Throne Room. "Let's get out of here before they start ripping each other's clothes off."  _I am so going to have to be the one to give him The Talk later,_ Vanitas thought to himself as he led his other half towards the door.  _That way he doesn't walk in on them by accident out of either curiosity or for a midnight chat._

"But why would they be ripping their clothes off?" Ven asked innocently. Between Terra and Aqua burying their feelings for each other and only being eleven when he lost his memories, he had no idea what Vanitas was talking about. "And why is that a bad thing?"

"VEN!" Terra and Aqua both shrieked in embarrassment as the duo fled the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ven and Vanitas' conversation at the end was a funny little thing I came up with when I first wrote this chapter on Fanfiction.net. As I was planning this chapter I'd been thinking of what Vanitas' non-dark suit attire should look like. Then I realized that unlike Riku, he's only ever seen in a dark suit. The conversation about clothes and Xehanort's budgeting was the result when I had the hilarious idea "Does he even wear anything under there at all?" Same goes for Vanitas' comments about Xehanort blowing the budget on black coats. Given how many the Organization probably has, he has to get them all from somewhere. Same goes for the materials used to build the Castle That Never Was.
> 
> For those wondering why Vanitas can't create Unversed anymore, he's powerfully enough to bring them out of Kingdom Hearts and into the Realm of Light because he's an embodiment of pure darkness. But Sora locking Kingdom Hearts with the X – Blade at the end of TXW cut off that connection.


	4. Stranded

#### Radiant Garden – Dining Room

#### August 4, 2015

"What do you mean our worlds are gone?" Captain Phoebus asked incredulously. He, his wife Esmerelda, their friend Quasimodo, the trio from Olympus, and a few warriors from the Land of Dragons sat in one of the dining rooms in Radiant Garden's castle. The day after Xehanort's death, the Coalition's communications network lost contact with their worlds. Gummi Ships had been dispatched to find out what was wrong. And only this morning did they finally return. And this time, they came back bearing bad news.

"I mean that they've completely disappeared," Cassim replied calmly. "The ships arrived at the coordinates of The Land of Dragons, Mount Olympus, and La Cite Des Cloches, but found nothing. They scoured the surrounding solar systems for two days looking for any sign of what had happened. I'm afraid your worlds have either been destroyed, or somehow moved to a completely different location beyond the boundaries of Coalition space."

"But that's impossible," Mushu interjected from his perch on Mulan's shoulder. "Our worlds' Keyholes were locked when Sora, Donald, and Goofy sealed that Door to Darkness three years ago. What could possibly have destroyed entire worlds?"

"I do not know," Cassim admitted. "And truthfully the idea terrifies me more than I would like to admit. But rest assured, the best scholars in the Coalition are being put to work scouring the libraries of Radiant Garden, Disney Castle, and the Land of Departure in search of answers, while Gummi Ships will be on constant patrol in the area of space where your worlds used to be in the event that anything changes. Until then, there's not a lot I can do. I'm sorry."

With that, he got up and left the room. Being in charge of the Daybreak Coalition's nascent spy network meant that the former King of Thieves was much busier these days than he'd ever been with the Forty Thieves. Back in the dining room, Phoebus, Esmerelda, and Quasimodo stepped out into the hallway to talk about what to do next while Mulan and Shang returned to the Borough to discuss the situation with the family. Yao, Ling, and Chen Po likewise did the same to talk to their wives. Mushu and Cri Ki slipped out as well before the doors closed, leaving Hercules, Megara, and Phil alone in the dining room.

"Hey," Meg said reassuringly, trying to cheer her husband up. "Come on wonderboy, you can't beat yourself up over things you can't control."

"But all those people back home…" Hercules protested glumly. "My parents… Everyone we knew from home is either dead or defenseless against the Heartless and any other monsters. And I…"

"Save it, kid," Phil interrupted before the demigod could launch into another bout of self-loathing like he'd done after the Hydra incident two years back. "Like the girl said, you can't beat yourself up over this. You gotta stay positive and hope everything will work out. With any luck, we'll be back home before you know it." After a half hour of encouragement, the two of them were finally able to get the message through Herc's incredibly thick skull. Eventually, they decided that however long they were cut off from home, they might as well make the most of it."

Meanwhile, out in the hallway, Phoebus, Esmerelda, and Quasimodo were animatedly discussing what to do if it turned out that they couldn't go back to Paris. Given her dislike of stone walls, Esmerelda wanted to find a more rural place to live. Quasimodo, enjoying his role as the bell ringer of Notre Dame despite Frollo's cruelty, decided that if returning to Paris proved to be impossible, he'd find a job as a bell ringer somewhere. Although they had all left friends and family behind in Paris, they weren't going to sit around moping about their misfortunes. If they were stuck out here, they were going to make the most of it.

While that conversation was being carried on, Mulan, Shang, and their friends and family had gathered in the living room of the large house Fa Zhou had rented in the city's newest district, constructed directly above where the city's old power plant used to be. Upon receiving the news that they were cut off from their homeland, Mulan's parents and grandmother were deeply troubled.

"The emperor, must have anticipated an event such as this," Fa Zhou speculated. "That must be why he insisted that we all travel to this land together, so that if anything prevented us from returning home, we would not be separated from our loved ones." While everyone else agreed with the assessment, they were still concerned over what had happened to their world. Had their home simply been moved somehow, or had some malevolent force, potentially more dangerous than Maleficent and Xehanort combined, destroyed it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little comment on Vanitas' behavior in the previous chapter, he's not going to suddenly switch to being all full on nice like Sora. He's going to be more along the lines of a cynical, sarcastic anti-hero. He's just still adjusting to people not treating him like a monster, and he's secretly enjoying the attention.


	5. Moving In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick reminder of my formatting style:
> 
> "Talking"
> 
> _Thinking_
> 
> _"Written text"_
> 
> _"Singing"_
> 
> "Speaking in a different language"

#### Twilight Town – Tram Common

#### August 5, 2015

_Please end this nightmare now,_ Lea silently prayed to Kingdom Hearts or whatever deity was listening as Roxas, Namine, and Xion dragged him up and down Market Street.  _This is worse than the time Larxene tried to force the entire Organization to put on a play of that movie Maolin Rouge or whatever it's called._ In the excitement of having his friends come back from the dead, Lea had suggested the idea of all four of them living in the old mansion on the edge of town. After calming down from the adrenaline rush of battle, they all agreed that the place was way too big for the four of them.

So after a quick trip to the ruins of the Castle That Never Was to plunder what remained of Organization XIII's Munny vault, they bought a small four-bedroom house just off of Station Heights. Incidentally, it turned out to be the exact same one that Roxas had lived in while he was in DiZ's simulation. Once all the paperwork had been signed, the four former Nobodies were now on a shopping spree buying furniture and clothes for their new home.

Thanks to his fake memories in the simulation, Roxas was a little more knowledgeable about aspects of everyday life that Lea had previously taken for granted. Because of this, Roxas was quickly given the job of answering all of Xion's numerous questions about everything they found in every single store. Seeing Sora's memories in dreams did not mean that she remembered or understood every detail she saw.

The first hour had been fine, when they were simply picking out simple the essential things like clothes, furniture, toiletries, and other household supplies. They could go out and get things like carpeting and curtains tomorrow, but thanks to Xion's curiosity, they'd spent the past two hours going around buying every single thing for their house at once. Eventually, they finally managed to convince Xion to save some stuff for later, though not before she bought herself a CD player.

After a long morning of shopping, they finally had more bags than they, Hayner, Pence, and Olette (who had offered to help carry stuff) could carry. Lea decided to order a pizza on the way back so they'd have something to reenergize themselves after a harrowing shopping experience. They all sat on the floor of their new house eating their lunch and throwing around ideas for where to put things. The house was fairly small, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and a small area right before the front door that they'd unanimously decided would be their dining room.

Once they finished their lunch, they got to work setting up what they could. The furniture wouldn't be delivered until later in the afternoon, so everyone's new clothes sat in the bags in each person's bedrooms. Olette helped Namine and Xion put up curtains in their rooms, while Hayner and Pence helped Roxas bring stuff up to his. Lea didn't understand why Roxas had bought a lamp with rotating fishes on the shade, but apparently his friend wanted to recreate his bedroom in the simulated Twilight Town, so the former Flurry of Dancing Flames could only shrug as walked into the master bedroom that he'd claimed for himself, being the oldest out of all of them.

Once the furniture was all delivered, Namine, Hayner, Pence, and Olette helped Lea with whatever drilling needed to be done. Despite the fact that he was old enough to be Roxas and Xion's brother, he was aware of the fact that he was the closest thing the two had to a father, and there was no way he was ready to let them within ten feet of power tools just yet. Namine was at least had enough practical knowledge to be trusted not to accidentally injure herself, so she pitched in. Meanwhile, Roxas and Xion took over putting away toiletries and cleaning supplies.

By the time everything was finished, the sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon. After all that exhausting work, nobody had the energy to walk up to the clock tower for ice cream. Fortunately, Namine had gone out and bought some once the refrigerator had been delivered, so they all sat at the newly assembled table in the dining room eating Sea Salt Ice Cream just like the good old days (or not so good old days, considering what life in the Organization had been like towards the end). After ice cream, Hayner, Pence, and Olette headed back to eat with their own families, and the former Nobodies ordered another Pizza for dinner.

While they were waiting for the pizza to be delivered, everyone drifted off to different parts of the house. Lea flopped down on the couch waiting for the pizza, jokingly hoping that the delivery boy didn't get devoured by Heartless on the way. Namine sat on the cushioned windowsill, quietly sketching the dark nighttime streets. Roxas sat upstairs in his room staring out the window marveling that after so long, he was living the life he'd had in the fake Twilight Town for real. After a few minutes, he heard a familiar melody coming from Xion's bedroom, and closed his open window before going to investigate. Pressing his ear to the door, he was able to hear Xion's muffled voice singing along to the same tune she'd been singing back in Sora's mind world.

**_"_ ** **_I'm through accepting limits"_ **

**_"'_ ** **_Cause someone says they're so."_ **

**_"_ ** **_Some things I cannot change,"_ **

**_"_ ** **_But till I try I'll never know."_ **

_Xion has an amazing singing voice,_ Roxas though as his friend continued to sing along. As he listened to the song, his hand dropped down and accidentally pressed against the door handle, pushing the door inward and causing him to fall flat on his face in front of Xion, who stopped singing as the door opened.

"Roxas!" she cried out when he fell. "Are you okay?" she quickly rushed over and helped him up.

"Yeah," he said. "Sorry I interrupted. You're a really good singer."

"You really think so?" Xion asked, blushing profusely.

"Are you kidding?" Roxas replied. "You sound amazing. Pence was telling me about how he's president of the school drama club. If we're going to be going to school here, you should audition. You're practically a shoo-in to get a part." Xion blushed even more. "What song was that anyway?"

"It's from a play I saw when I was on the run from the Organization," she explained meekly. "I needed a place to go and clear my head, and I ended up on a world called New York. I ended up outside of a theater, and I accidentally bumped into this couple around Axel's age. Apprently they knew all about Keyblades and other worlds, and when we talked I just ended up telling them all about where I came from. I already knew I was a replica at that point, and well… they insisted on buying me an extra ticket because they felt I should have a little fun in the middle of everything that was happening."

"But wouldn't tickets have been sold out by that point?" he asked, confused.

"It was only thirty minutes before the show, so I thought so too," Xion answered. "But apparently the guy was a really famous Captain, whatever that was, and there was one more VIP seat left. But I had such a great time at the play that I ended up leaving the world with a CD of all the songs and a bunch of other merchandise. I tried to pay for it myself but the people who paid for my ticket insisted on getting it for me."

"Well that was  _really_ nice of them," Roxas commented. "What was it about?" Xion smiled as she went on to animatedly describe the backstory of the play for the next ten minutes, discussing everything from the characters to the merchandise, which after being brought back from the dead, Xion had retrieved from where she'd left it in the Old Mansion during her meeting with Namine. Their conversation was only interrupted by the two words that would drag them downstairs to the dinner table.

"Pizza's here!" Lea called out, sending everyone scrambling for the table to eat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Xion is a fan of Wicked. It's a shout out to one of my favorite KH fanvids (go to YouTube and search Kingdom Hearts defying Gravity). As for who bought Xion a ticket to see Wicked, that's a spoiler for a future story. 
> 
> Regarding the reference to the Organization having a Munny vault, they've got to pay for things like food somehow, don't they?
> 
> Lea's comments about Pizza delivery guys and Maolin Rouge are shout outs to the amazing and hilarious KH parody fanfic [Those Lacking Spines](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2903858/1/Those-Lacking-Spines). For those who've read it, yes, I'm going to include a Gummi Ship christened the Existentialist at some point as another shout out.


	6. Policies and Politics

#### Radiant Garden – Grand Hall

#### August 6, 2015

"Good afternoon," Leon greeted as the other representatives of the Coalition's member worlds took their seats at the table in the Grand Hall of Hollow Bastion. Now that the celebrations of Xehanort's death had finally died down, they had gathered here on Radiant Garden to discuss the future of the fledgling alliance of worlds. "Thank you all for tearing yourselves away from the ongoing festivities for a few hours to come to this meeting," Leon went on. "While the alliance has proven extremely effective in times of conflict, it will ultimately be whether we can get along during times of piece that will ultimately decide whether the Daybreak Coalition will endure or fall apart."

"I think that this alliance needs to stick together," Maurice, the representative of Beast's Castle, suggested. "Xehanort may be gone, but Maleficent's allies still remain. Not to mention the Heartless. Not every world has the technology necessary to protect itself against such threats." Representatives from the less technologically developed worlds like Enchanted Dominion, Castle of Dreams, and Dwarf Woodlands nodded their heads in agreement. The old system of keeping all the worlds separate left them alone and defenseless against more powerful threats like Maleficent and the Heartless. As terrible as Xehanort's actions had been, they proved that the old world order could only work for so long.

"I agree the worlds need to stick together for defense," Aladdin commented. "But what kind of rules would we enforce when we're not locked in combat with the likes of Xehanort or Maleficent? Not every world as the exact same culture and customs. How will we deal with issues like jurisdiction when enforcing laws?" There were a few murmurs of agreement, pointing out that the prince of Agrabah raised a good point. With travel between worlds becoming more common, how would they address issues regarding the sovereignty of member worlds?

"I have an idea," Jack Skellington offered. "Since knowledge of other worlds is becoming more and more common, there should be a standard for certain things like education and medical care that all member worlds will have to uphold. Each world has jurisdiction over enforcing their own laws, while situations involving multiple worlds will fall under the jurisdiction of a combined alliance military and intelligence network." The ambassadors who agreed with Aladdin all blinked. Jack Skellington had developed a reputation for being a bit kooky in matters not related to Halloween celebrations, so his insight was surprising for many of them.

"That actually sounds like a great idea," Princess Anna of Arendelle replied. "We can have a certain set of rules regarding jurisdiction in interplanetary incidents so that everyone has a clear idea of what's expected of tourists as far as what not to do." After discussing and hammering out the details for a few more hours, the Coalition Council eventually managed to reach a unanimous decision to support the proposal. While under other circumstances, the debate wouldn't have been as civil or productive, the alliance had come together to work towards a common goal, and nobody in the room wanted to allow the effort they'd all put into protecting themselves against Xehanort and Maleficent collapse over disagreements that were ultimately petty in the grand scheme of things.

Once the first Charter of the Daybreak Coalition had been signed, discussion turned to more practical topics, like training programs for the combined armies, abandoned buildings that could be converted into bases for either the military or for Coalition Intelligence, and which world would serve as the alliance's capital. Eventually, they decided that rather than have the capital in a fixed location, the Coalition Council would convene on a different world each year, so that each member world was given an opportunity to host the council.

Because of its isolation from the city, Twilight Town's old mansion was to be converted into a base for the spy network Cassim was setting up at the behest of the council, along with the old Lair of the Forty Thieves and Elsa's now abandoned ice castle in the mountains of Arendelle. The Sand Swept Ruins outside of Agrabah would be restored and converted into a training facility for the Coalition military, along with two abandoned castles in Enchanted Dominion and Dwarf Woodlands. After a few more hours of discussion, the council adjourned for the night. As Leon walked through the corridors of the castle back to his house in the Borough, he ran into a familiar quartet in the Entrance Hall.

"I take it the meeting went well?" Even asked curiously. After the four surviving founders of Organization XIII had been reborn a little over six months ago, they immediately set out to atone for all the horrible things they'd done at Xehanort's instruction. They were all doing it in different ways. Dilan and Aeleus had immediately returned to their previous roles as castle guards, defending the city and its people. Meanwhile, Even had combined his scientific knowledge with Cid's technical skill and Merlin's magical power to help expedite reconstruction plans. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ienzo had hung up his lab coat in shame and reopened the old arcade down in the city.

"Swimmingly," Leon answered as he walked past them. "Anything new happening with the Restoration Committee?" While the city would never look the exact same way it did before The Fall, it was still a thriving town once again. The lake that once surrounded the city walls had partially filled back up again, even though it was slightly lower than before. Though the castle had been restored to its original condition, the outer gardens could never be rebuilt. Their world would always bear the scars of its destruction, and that was something they had all long since learned to accept.

"Not much," Dilan replied. "The Gardens are still re-growing, but other than that, reconstruction efforts are completely finished. Since there's going to be more traffic lately, the rest of the Committee is talking about building another layer to the city to avoid being overcrowded." Leon nodded his head. They'd probably need it. While he doubted people would be flocking to the city in droves, it was still a good idea to be prepared for when the housing available was no longer enough.

"Great idea," he commented as he headed out the door. "I'll see you guys later. Now that the party's finally winding down I'm going to go get some shut eye." It was great that Xehanort was dead, but the celebrations had been going on for almost a week now, and he hadn't gotten a good night sleep since before the Raid in Agrabah. He was looking forward to a nice, quiet evening so he could go to bed early and sleep in until noon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The named representatives for each world are as follows: Leon (Radiant Garden), Aladdin (Agrabah), Grimsby and Sebastian (Atlantica, each representing the land and sea kingdoms respectively), Rafiki (Pride Lands), Anna (Arendelle), Eugene (Kingdom of Corona), Pacha (Empire of the Sun), Jack Skellington (Halloween Town), Elinor (DunBroch) and Robin Hood (Sherwood Forest).
> 
> The two castles they're referring to are Maleficent's castle and the Evil Queen's castle. As for the state of Radiant Garden, I was originally going to have it looking identical to the way it was in BBS, but then I realized that with the way the city was being reconstructed in KH2, that was unlikely, so now Radiant Garden is basically a fusion of its BBS appearance and its KH2 appearance. The castle looks exactly the same as in BBS.


	7. Beach Day

#### Destiny Islands – Seashore

#### August 7, 2015

Namine smiled as she leaned back in her beach chair on the sands of the small island where Sora, Riku, and Kairi spent all their time as kids. After spending so much time fiddling around with those three's memories of this place, it was nice to be able to actually experience it for herself. Her pencil practically flew across the page of her sketchbook as she rapidly drew Roxas, Xion, Lea, Hayner, Pence, and Olette playing around in the water. Once they'd gotten settled into their new house, Roxas had suggested finally going to the beach like the trio had been planning to do back when they were in the Organization.

She giggled as Roxas splashed Lea while Xion tackled him into the water. She was happy for them, and yet, while they were all adjusting to living together just fine, she still felt like a third wheel in the group. Everyone had already been together for years and despite repeated assurances that she was part of the group, she still felt like she was intruding on something she didn't deserve to be a part of. Between living under the thumbs of both DiZ and Marluxia, she exactly have the highest self-esteem.

After she finished the sketch, she decided to take a walk around the island, and soon she found herself standing on the deck of the tree house behind the entrance to the Secret Place, looking out at the ocean as Lea came out of the water to dry off. He looked up and waved at her, his eyes telling her the same thing the others had been telling her for ages now.  _You don't have to isolate yourself. You're part of the group._ But while she was still friends with all of them, she felt that she felt left out because they had all been in their own tight-knit groups for years now.

"Not used to being part of a group, huh?" a familiar voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned around to find a teen resembling a younger Sora with black hair and gold eyes, dressed in black shorts with a black and red shirt. Though she hadn't met him in person, she'd heard enough from Lea, Roxas, and Xion to know who he was.

"It's not that," she told Vanitas as he walked out of the tree hollow and leaned against the railing beside her. "They're all great friends. I just feel like what they all have together is something special, and I…"

"You feel like an outside because you weren't there when they all came together," he finished. "I know the feeling. Ventus and his precious friends can accept me all they want but it's not like we're all one big happy family. They're like they're own little trio, and I'm the expendable extra."

"But they all seem so nice," Namine protested. "They wouldn't treat you like that."

"No, they spend all their time holed up in their castle not caring about anyone outside their little family," Vanitas retorted sarcastically. "Of course they're too nice for that. It doesn't change the fact that with all these little groups of three, we're always the odd ones out." Despite his cynicism and sarcasm, he wasn't wrong. She nodded her head in agreement as sketched the waves. As she drew, she had an idea.

"What if…" she began, then stopped.  _He'd probably think it was stupid_ she thought to herself.

"What if what?" he asked curiously.

"It… It's nothing," she said meekly.  _It was a stupid idea anyway._ Vanitas only raised his eyebrow as his curiosity grew even more.

"You don't have to bottle things up, you know," Vanitas replied. "Take it from someone who spawned Unversed just by feeling. Bottling things up just makes a situation worse." Reluctantly, Namine let out a deep breath as she explained her ideas.

"I was thinking maybe we could start our own little group," she answered sadly. "I know it sounds stupid, and we've only just met…"

"It doesn't sound stupid," Vanitas replied reassuringly. "A club for outcasts… I kinda like the sound of that. Fly around the worlds looking for one more member and we've already got our own little trio right here." Namine smiled at that. The acceptance of that idea started rebuilding a tiny bit of the tattered remains of her self-confidence. She chuckled as she looked out at the beach. Lea was walking towards the tree she was in while Roxas, Xion, and the others dragged themselves out of the water for lunch.

"I should probably head down and get lunch now," she said as she closed up her sketchbook. "Lea's probably heading over to either ask me if I'm hungry or bring me the sandwich I packed." Vanitas nodded as he opened up a Dark Corridor with a snap of his fingers.

"A little bit of advice," he replied before he stepped through. "Don't push people who want to be nice to you away just because you feel like an outsider. As charming and optimistic as I may be, I wouldn't dream of taking Ven and the others' sappy kindness for granted. Take it from me, Namine. Even when we're outcasts, we're still lucky to have people looking out for us." With that, he vanished into the darkness as the Corridor closed behind him.

Namine chuckled as she folded up her sketchbook. As cynical as Vanitas was, he had a point. Roxas, Lea, and the others, they all cared about her. She climbed down the ladder just as Lea walked up carrying the sandwich she'd ordered from the shop in Twilight Town before they'd left for the beach. While Lea had expected she'd want to eat alone, she happily accepted her sandwich as they walked back down to the water together.

As she sat down on the sand eating her lunch with the other five teenagers, she couldn't help but feel at peace for the first time in ages. Between being treated as a puppet by Marluxia and a disposable tool by DiZ, it was nice to finally be herself for once. To finally be around people who treated her as a person instead of a weapon. Sure, Lea and Riku had been nice to her but they had been the exceptions rather than the rule. Now, after years of being told what to do and what she was, she was finally free to figure out who she was as a person, and despite feeling like she was always intruding on other groups' bonds, her long-destroyed self-esteem was finally beginning to rebuild itself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I was planning these one-shots, Namine having self-esteem issues made sense given the way that Marluxia and DiZ each treated her. Sure, DiZ may have realized the error of his ways, but it's not illogical to assume that DiZ's whole anti-Nobody attitude took a toll on Namine's self-confidence before KH2.
> 
> Now Vanitas' cynicism and deadpan snarker tendencies are starting to show. I was reading different Kingdom Hearts fan forum threads when I was first writing this a few years back regarding the possibility of Vanitas getting a redemption arc and one poster brought up the idea of a little friendship between Vanitas and Namine. I thought "hey, that's a really neat idea," and ran with it.


	8. Round Two

#### Shibuya – Scramble Crossing

#### August 8, 2015

"Congratulations," a voice called out once Ludor and Isa finished their duel with the Game Master of Shibuya's Underground. The two of them turned around to find Joshua, the one who'd offered them entry into the game, clapping as he walked up to them. "You both survived The Game." Despite their exhaustion, the former Nobodies felt proud of their accomplishment. They'd managed to survive everything The Underground had to offer and they had survived. Whether they won however, was another story, as Joshua had informed them that only a set quantity of Players would receive a second chance at life.

"So how did we stack up in the rankings?" Ludor asked curiously, hopeful that they'd managed to win while remaining realistic about their chances of success. They were both surprised and disappointed when Joshua revealed the end result.

"Ludor," he replied. "You won the game. Sadly, your partner did not make it into the final bracket." Isa was disappointed. On the one hand, he was glad at least one of them won. But on the other, what did that mean for him? Would his soul be Erased like all the others who failed in previous days? Or would he be sent right back to Ashphodel? Before he could ask the question that he and Ludor were both thinking, Joshua answered it for them.

"Since you lost the game Isa," the angel began. "You have three options: Play again, erasure, or become a Reaper. Which do you choose?" For a moment, Isa considered his options thoughtfully. Erasure was out of the question. Becoming a reaper meant more supernatural powers, but his survival depended on how many Players he Erased. In the end, it wasn't really much of a contest.

"I'll play again," he answered bluntly. Joshua nodded at the blue-haired man's decision, and returned the former Organization members' entry fees with a snap of his fingers. Isa clutched his head as his memories of his and Lea's plans for their coup against Xemnas rushed back into his mind, while Ludor, whose entry fee was his love of gambling, happily shuffled his deck of cards in his hands.

"Just a head's up," Joshua commented. "Each round of the Game takes place at least one week apart, so the souls of the next round's Players stay in Ashphodel in between Games." Isa nodded in understanding before the Composer sprouted wings and flew off into the sky. Turning to his now former partner, Ludor wished him good luck in the next round. Without a fellow Organization member there with him, he'd need to find someone to Partner with in order to survive.

"And enjoy your new life," Isa told the Gambler of Fate. "You've earned it." As soon as the words left his lips, the world around him faded away like mist, and he found himself standing in the familiar caverns of the Underworld. In the Fields of Ashphodel.  _Might as well plan a workout routine to stay in shape for the next Game, then,_ he thought to himself as he began a light jog through the crowds of the dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those wondering about my decision to have this fic set in August 2015, there's a few reasons.   
> Reason 1 being that Birth By Sleep takes place right at the beginning of Lilo and Stitch. Assuming that L&S takes place in 2002, the year it was released, that would mean KH1 occurs in 2012, KH2 in 2013, and DDD in late 2014/early 2015. I included a timeline in the final chapter of The Xehanort War over on fanfiction.net, but for the purposes of this fic, The final boss battle with Xemnas in KH2 occurred on New Year's Eve 2013, and Dream Drop Distance within the first 2 weeks of January 2015, with The Xehanort War beginning 6 months afterwards.
> 
> Reason #2 is because I wanted to have the timelines line up with the way I integrated the MCU into the story via Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
> 
> And to clear up any confusion about the whole timing issue, since the Reaper's Game is only 7 days in TWEWY, I always interpreted Riku's whole "worlds all run on different Time Axis-es" comment in Dream Drop Distance as being more like time zones. So time in Shibuya is far enough ahead of time in the Keyblade Garveyard that night time in the Graveyard on August 1 is morning in Shibuya on the 2nd.


	9. Finding Our Way

#### The Land of Departure – Throne Room

#### August 9, 2015

Aqua smiled as she greeted everyone warmly in the throne room. While not every Keyblade Wielder in the known worlds was available for this meeting on short notice, there were enough that the majority of them were present for the discussion they were about to have. Sora and Kairi were still on their "vacation cruise" as Riku called it (and in Aqua's opinion the two had more than earned it), and Vanitas, who'd joined the Coalition's new intelligence network to make up for his actions in aiding Xehanort, was off helping the other spies scope out the locations being given to them for bases. After taking a deep breath to calm herself, she began.

"Thank you all for coming on such short notice," she began. "With Master Yen Sid's passing, eleven of us now remain in the Realm of Light. As Keyblade Wielders, it is our duty to defend the worlds and maintain the balance between Light and Dark. In ancient times, the ability to wield a Keyblade was passed down from Master to Apprentice in a lineage going back thousands of years. However, much has changed in the last thirteen years. Where before each Wielder studied under a Keyblade Master, a significant number of us were self-taught. Times have changes, and for us to do our jobs effectively, we need to change with them."

"With all that said," she went on. "I have called you all here to discuss exactly how we should change. While we're all friends with each other, we still need a proper chain of command so that in times of crisis we can remain organized. We need a leader who will coordinate plans and keep track of information. Before his untimely demise, Master Yen Sid filled that role, and now we must decide who should take up that mantle now." The blue-haired Master took a breath as she finished her speech. It was time for the discussion to begin.

As she sat gingerly on Master Eraqus' throne, she opened her ears to the ideas and suggestions of her comrades in arms. These were not decisions that should be made lightly. Terra pointed out that since both light and Darkness should be in balance, Master Eraqus' bias towards the Light proved that they couldn't just rely on Light alone. After throwing around a few ideas, Riku suggested that the Order of the Keyblade would be lead by a triumvirate. While membership of the triumvirate would be based on experience for the time being, future apprentices would be encouraged to follow whichever path their heart lead them towards.

Once the meeting adjourned, Terra lead everyone over to the kitchens where he'd ordered enough pizza to feed the whole group. While Mickey congratulated Riku and reassured the young man about his doubts, Ven and Roxas quickly hit it off. At first Roxas was a little frustrated about the fact that after spending most of his life being treated as an extension of Sora, even his face was copied from someone else's. But Lea and Xion pointed out that even if Roxas looked like Ven's identical twin, he did in fact have something to call his own: his memories and bond with his friends.

While that conversation was happening, Terra and Aqua were animatedly discussing what Terra was going to do now that his chosen successor had become a Master. Terra wanted to retire and cast aside his Keyblade, feeling that after everything he'd done, he no longer deserved the right to wield it. Aqua, on the other hand, reminded him that none of what Xehanort used his body for was his fault. He was a pawn as much as Riku had been.

"Besides," she said with a supportive chuckle, "there's no way I'm letting you retire until you've been a Master for at least a few decades." That managed to get a laugh out of Terra, and his mood brightened considerably after that. Meanwhile, Ventus had to ask Roxas a question that had been weighing down on him for a few days now.

"Can your friend Namine still mess with people's memories?" Ven asked nervously.

"She doesn't really like talking about it," Roxas answered hesitantly. "But she does still have the power. Axel, Xion, and I are trying to help her get over her fears about it and show her that she can use it for more than just mess with people's minds like the Organization forced her to. She could use her power to help people with amnesia, or remind people of things they're forgetting."

"The amnesia part was actually why I wanted to ask about," Ventus said. "I don't know if Lea told you, but I have absolutely no memory of my life before I met Terra and Aqua. I can't remember how I became Xehanort's apprentice, or where I came from. I can't even remember my parents."

"And you're hoping Namine will be able to sniff around inside your head and dig those memories up," Lea surmised as he cut into the conversation. "I can understand that. I can't say if it'll work, but we'll talk to her and see if she's up for it. Just don't get your hopes up."

"I'll try not to," Ven replied. While he didn't want to be too optimistic, he was hopeful that even if Namine couldn't recover all of his memories, she'd at least be able to find some clue as to where he came from. He thought of Terra and Aqua as a family already, but since coming to the Land of Departure all those years ago, he'd lie awake in bed some nights wondering whether he had parents out there in the worlds outside, scared and wondering if he'd ever come home. After a few hours, most of the Keyblade Wielders present cleared out. Riku and Mickey headed out first to go spend time with their families. Lea, Roxas, and Xion followed shortly afterwards, heading back to their cozy little house in Twilight Town.

Ven headed back to his room with a yawn, saying goodnight to Terra and Aqua on the way. Things had changed a lot in the last thirteen years, but now that Xehanort was gone, they could finally live in peace. While he knew that conquerors like Maleficent would always rise up to oppose the balance of the universe, it was good to know that it wasn't just up to him and his two surrogate siblings to stop them alone. They had friends would help in every way they could, Keyblade or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The backstory for Ventus being set up by Union Cross since I first wrote this fic completely retcons all of my own theories. A lot of people are still speculating on how Roxas might react to Ven and their physical resemblance, my opinion was "he might feel a little apprehensive at first, but he'd probably understand once he heard the full story." As for why Roxas refers to Lea as Axel, it's pretty much for the same reason everyone calls him that in DDD. They're too used to that name, so it stuck.


	10. Hidden in Plain Sight

#### The Lanes Between – Captain Hook's Pirate Ship

#### August 10, 2015

Maleficent seethed with fury as she paced the top deck of the Jolly Roger. In the last month, her plans to begin her conquest of the worlds anew had come crashing down, thanks to that madman Xehanort and those foolish Keyblade Wielders. Aside from Hades' marriage proposal, the last few weeks were a string of upsets and disappointments.  _Still,_ she reminded herself after taking a deep, calming breath,  _this is why I have backup plans._ All things considered, her situation could've been worse.

With her death faked, the Keyblade Wielders wouldn't be actively seeking her out, although they may suspect she still lives. A sizeable portion of her army remained free, and hopefully, after meeting with her contact today, they would have a new base from which to plan their next attack. She smiled as her fiancé came up from their shared cabin and gave her a good morning kiss.

"The Etherium always looks rather calming in the early mornings," Captain Hook commented as he emerged from his private quarters. "Anyway, Maleficent, we've reached the rendezvous coordinates and there's still no sign of your contact. If they haven't shown up in 24 hours, I don't think they'll be coming at all."

"She'll come," Maleficent replied knowingly as she gazed out into the distance. "She hasn't let me down yet." An hour later, her mysterious contact was still a no-show. Hook was anxiously pacing the poop deck while Mr. Smee kept the ship steady. Cruella had gone back down to nap while Helga came up from doing a morning workout in the hold, with Gaston taking her place. Hamsterviel remained on the lookout in the crow's nest while Diablo flew back and forth along the deck to relieve the boredom.

Meanwhile, Scroop and Randall skittered up and down the masts to keep themselves busy. Yzma stayed below deck getting her very-much-needed beauty sleep. Maleficent was about to head below deck for some breakfast when Hamsterviel finally announced that they had a ship incoming off the starboard side. After an hour of waiting, everyone practically raced to the railing as they peered out into space. Cries of "FINALLY!" rang out across the deck as a small, grey, single-occupant space craft pulled up alongside the Jolly Roger.

After tying the edge of the spaceship to the side of the Roger, the cockpit opened. Out of the cockpit rose a Luphomoid woman, her blue skin predominantly hidden under purple combat gear. Her left arm was entirely mechanical, and lines visible beneath her skin indicated cybernetic implants all over her body. Although word of her deeds had never before reached Coalition space, even Maleficent's allies were instantly wary of her, stepping back out of caution.

"You're late," the dark sorceress said, her calm demeanor masking her irritation with her contact.

"Couldn't be helped," Nebula replied as she hopped down onto the deck of the Jolly Roger. "The Galactic Armada impounded my ship before I could make my way over here, and I had to fight through their troops in order to steal a new one." Maleficent scowled. This could bring unwanted attention that they didn't need at this vulnerable stage.

"And were you followed?" the green-skinned fairy demanded impatiently. Everyone else looked nervously at each other. If anyone learned of their location now, while they were busy licking their wounds, their forces would crumble. Any of them could be captured or killed, and those who survived would face Maleficent's unrestrained fury. A prospect that induced nightmares in all of them.

"I'm the daughter of Thanos, remember?" the blue-skinned assassin retorted. "I was trained to make multiple stops to sweep for trackers before moving on to my destination. We're perfectly safe here." Everyone else bar Maleficent breathed a collective sigh of relief at having escaped the Mistress of all Evil's potential wrath. With that matter settled, Maleficent moved on to debriefing her spy on her assignment. While the lower ranked members of the group headed below deck to find something to do, the green witch lead Nebula and the inner circle of the Hellfire Club (they'd finally decided on a name for their cabal and just decided to go with something catchy) into Hook's Cabin to plan their next move.

"The Kiln has been completely abandoned," Nebula reported. "After Ronan's attack on Turo, the Galactic Council opened an investigation into the corruption of their off-world prison. This resulted in the corruption of the prison guards being exposed. The bodies of the guards and inmates were removed, but the prison was never reopened. The Grand Councilwoman decided that normal criminals should just be kept in planetary prisons, and built a new space station to house those too dangerous to incarcerate on planets."

"The Kiln was left to rust," she continued as she finished her report. "And it is ripe for the taking, Maleficent." Once the assassin delivered the results of her reconnaissance mission, Maleficent smiled insidiously.  _An abandoned base with working technology and ready access to prison cells to detain captives,_ she thought to herself.  _This is better than I could have hoped for. It's not the ideal headquarters for an interstellar empire, but it's a decent place to start considering the hell we've all just been through._

"I think it's time we claim this facility as our own," she said with a malicious grin. The rest of her inner circle all nodded their heads in unanimous agreement. Neubla smirked, and her smile grew even more when Maleficent presented the assassin with her payment: the severed head of her "father", Thanos the Mad Titan. Before the Jolly Roger got underway, Maleficent dispatched Diablo for a reconnaissance mission to retrieve one of Xehanort's remaining prisoners from the World That Never Was. After he left, the cabal completed their preparations, and with the combined strength of Maleficent, Hades, Yzma, and Cruella, the Hellfire Club tore open a Corridor of Darkness large enough to transport the entire ship and all its occupants to their new (if temporary) base of operations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Guardians of the Galaxy fans, Nebula has arrived. I originally wrote this before her quasi-redemption arc in GOTG Vol. 2, so Nebula remains a villain throughout the Acolytes of Chaos storyline. Anyway, in the universe of The Xehanort War, Guardians of the Galaxy doesn't take place exactly the same way it does in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although not too far from canon. Just replace Xandar and the Nova Corps with the Galactic Federation from Lilo and Stitch. Other than that it's pretty much the same.


	11. Mourning and Memories

#### Mysterious Tower – The Tower

#### August 11, 2015

 _I'm going to miss him,_ King Mickey thought to himself as he gazed sadly at his former teacher's withered form. Out of everyone, Yen Sid's death hit him hardest of all. Even before becoming a Keyblade wielder, the mouse had always looked up to the ancient sorcerer as a father figure. Even after becoming King, he routinely came back to the tower for advice when he had a problem. The mystical building had become a second home for him, and without Yen Sid there to fill it warmth and light, the world felt hollow and empty.

A tear slid down his cheek as he placed the Keyblade Master's recognizable blue hat on his chest. A Coalition Gummi Ship had recovered his body at the lanes between, and Mickey had spent the last few days preparing to give the man a private funeral. He stiffened as he heard the doors creak open behind him, but relaxed when he heard the soft thumping of rabbit feet walking slowly across the Tower grounds.

"I miss him too," Oswald said mournfully as he and Mickey stood beside the great sorcerer's coffin. The mouse put a hand on his brother's shoulder in understanding. The two of them had both come across the Mysterious Tower completely by accident as teenagers. Yen Sid had taken them both in and became the father figure both had been lacking in their lives. After studying with the man for so long, Oswald wanted nothing more than to be a Keyblade Wielder.

When Mickey got that honor instead, he had been jealous. But despite the little incidents that resulted from that jealousy, Oswald had moved past it, and Yen Sid trained him in the art of sorcery. In the years that followed, Oswald proved to be a prodigy when it came to magic. Yen Sid had even told him that he was a prime candidate to take the aging wizard's place in the tower when he finally passed away. It seemed unthinkable all those years ago. But now… Oswald sighed as he passed Mickey the magical scroll he'd found containing their mentor's will.

"I thought we should read it together," the forty-five year old anthropomorphic rabbit said. "That's the way he would have wanted it." Mickey nodded in reluctant agreement, and the two brothers sadly read their surrogate father's last wishes together. As expected, Yen Sid left Mickey all of his books about the Keyblade and its history. But then came the big surprise.

"To Oswald, diligent student and beloved son," Mickey read aloud, since his brother was too surprised to speak. "I leave you my enchanted hat, my remaining books and possessions, and lastly, the Tower itself and all that remains on my estate. You will make a fine sorcerer someday, Oswald. I know you will make me proud." By the time the mouse king finished reading, both brothers were in tears.

Oswald was reluctant to take such a responsibility, but with a little encouragement from Mickey, he gently reached across their mentor's chest and retrieved the pointed sorcerer's cap. He wasn't going to interfere with the existing set up of the tower any more than was necessary to move his wife Ortensia and their 420 children into the tower. Mickey promised to give Oswald his old apprentice robes if his brother wasn't ready for a more regal looking wardrobe. Then with one final farewell to their fallen father, the two brothers closed the lid and lowered Yen Sid's coffin into the freshly dug grave at the base of the Tower.

* * *

#### Destiny Islands – Town

#### August 11, 2015

It was a quiet evening on the Destiny Islands as the blonde teen made his way down the paths leading through town. To anyone watching, he appeared to be just another interplanetary traveler, since those were becoming more and more common these days. But he wasn't. He had been born on these islands, had lived there for the first ten years of his life. Until one day he got stranded on the small play island during a storm, only to be rescued by a kind old man with a bald head and gold eyes.

Xehanort had taken the boy under his wing, teaching him how to wield a Keyblade. While the boy was reluctant to leave his home behind, Xehanort told the boy that he'd already spoken to his parents and they had agreed. Even so, the boy still had his doubts. After a year of intense, brutal training combined with his doubts and homesickness, he finally demanded to go home. Xehanort, being a master manipulator, summoned a horde of Neoshadows and told the boy he could return home after he'd strengthened his inner Darkness enough to defeat the monsters.

Ventus winced as he recalled the painful memories of his life with Xehanort. He was grateful that Namine had been able to repair his memories, but at the same time, it hurt to know how much pain his disappearance had caused his family. His parents probably thought he was dead and he hadn't even remembered them. Now that he did, it was time for a long overdue family reunion.

 _What'll they say?_ He wondered to himself as he walked through town.  _Will they be made at me? Will they ask where I've been? Will they accept what I've become?_ As all his worries and doubts flew around his head, he turned onto his old street and saw his parent's house sitting right at the end of the road, in the exact same place it was before he'd left. As he walked up to the front porch, hoping that his parents hadn't moved since the last time he'd been home, he failed to notice a young woman watching him from the upstairs window of a house at the other end of the street.

"Who is that guy?" Selphie Tilmitt wondered aloud as she looked out the window at the blonde stranger. "And what is he doing at Sora's house?" After taking a deep breath to calm himself, Ven knocked on the door.

* * *

Inside the house, Emi and Taro ate their dinner in silence, punctuated by sporadic bits of conversation. Sora and Kairi were off exploring the worlds before school started up again, but while they fully supported their son in everything, having him away from home for long periods of time always reminded them of what had happened to his brother. Before Sora was born, they had another child. A cheerful, blonde-haired boy. He would have been a little over ten when she was first pregnant with Sora.

But then one day, he'd been grounded for something. It had been so long ago that she didn't even remember what it was about, and it was pointless anyway. She always wondered whether he'd have disappeared if they hadn't grounded him. A monsoon had blown in during the afternoon, and she'd gone upstairs to bring him dinner only to find his bedroom window wide open and sandal-shaped footprints in the dirt below. She and her husband had raced out into the raging storm following the trail before the wind and rain washed it away.

They followed their son's footprints toward the docks, where they found that Taro's rowboat was missing. Realizing that their child was either stranded on the kids' island or being tossed around the waves, they quickly raced down the beach to where the island's emergency rescue boat was docked, and once the coast guard had been appraised of the situation, they set off through the stormy waters towards the small island.

There was no sign of him on the small island, and the coast guard searched the waters within fifty miles of the islands. After a day of searching through rain and sun, the only conclusion that could be reached was that their son had gotten lost at sea and drowned. The couple grieved for weeks before Emi finally got the news that she was pregnant. While she was nervous about being a mother again so soon after losing her first child, having Sora on the way proved to be what she and Taro needed to snap themselves out of their depressed funk and move on with their lives.

They still mourned their lost son, but as time passed, the pain became easier to bear. Once Sora was old enough, they told him about his lost older brother. Even though the whole island knew of their loss and offered their condolences on the anniversary of his death, it wasn't something that they liked to talk about often. Today marked eighteen years since their oldest son had disappeared, and they were eating all his favorite foods like they did every year.

A soft knock at the door brought the two parents out of their mourning. Since most of their neighbors didn't come over so that they could grieve their lost child in solitude, they were both confused as to who would be stopping by. Emi walked over to the front door and opened it. Whatever words she would have said died in her throat as she looked at the face of the blonde-haired teenager standing on the front porch. His hair had gotten longer and spikier, his clothes were so different that they just screamed "Keyblade Wielder", and he was much taller than he used to be. But one look and his eyes and she knew.

"Mom?" Ven began nervously. For a few seconds, Emi and Taro could only stare, unsure if this was real, a prank, or a grief-induced hallucination. But they looked in the boy's eyes and they knew. This was real. Their son was alive. And he had finally come home. Words could not properly express how they were feeling right now, so Emi grabbed her long lost son and pulled him in for the tightest hug she could give, with Taro rushing up to join them. Tears flowed down everyone's faces as they were finally reunited at last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I borrowed the names of Sora's parents come from the fanfic [Islands Like Glass Towers](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5882233/1/Islands-Like-Glass-Towers) over on fanfiction.net which follows the story of his parents from when they first met to after Kingdom Hearts 2. I wanted to refer to Sora's parents by name so I went with the names for his parents from one of the best fanfics that feature them.
> 
> While I've since been (partly) proven wrong by Union Cross, when crafting my early theories of Ven's pre-Xehanort past, I always thought it would be fitting if Ven had come from Destiny Islands, adding another layer of significance to Xehanort bringing him there after splitting his heart. The idea that Xehanort took Ven to die at home made sense, so I ran with that. Back before BBS came out, my theories regarding the connections between TAV and SRK were less of the outlandish "Ven is Roxas" variety, and more along the lines of characters being biologically related to each other. So when I was thinking about how Aqua notes in BBS that 4-year-old Sora looks physically similar to Ventus, I thought this would be a good way to incorporate that early theory of mine in a way that still made sense. 
> 
> I know this saga seems like it's just a lot of fluff now that Xehanort's gone but it's not. There is an overarching story, I just needed to write some world-building one-shots to set things in motion before I'd first written the next main part of the story.


	12. Go the Distance

#### Agrabah – Sand-swept Ruins

#### August 12, 2015

"Relax your shoulders, everyone!" Phil bellowed as he walked around the group of men and women doing stretches. After researchers discovered that Olympus was Tethered, he, Hercules, and Meg were in shock for a while. While Hercules would keep going around helping people like he always did, Phil was at a loss for what to do. Sure he'd keep helping Herc stay in shape, but without the Coliseum, what was he going to do for a living? Who would he train?

After a few days, that prince, Aladdin, approached the portly satyr with a job offer. The Coalition Council had decided to convert a cluster of abandoned ruins out in the Agrabah desert into a training complex for the combined army of the worlds. Someone had to help train all the recruits, and Phil jumped at the opportunity. The reconstruction of the old ruins was still ongoing, but Phil nevertheless took to the new job with the same enthusiasm.

Phil smiled as he walked around shouting pointers to everyone as they went through their morning workout routine as he instructed. He and Herc were making a great team, with the demigod taking charge of weapons training while he handled the physical fitness portions. With a few extra training regimens suggested by Captain Shang, the United Coalition Army would soon be a force to be reckoned with.

And while they could no longer go back home, they were still going to bring a little bit of their old world out here with them. Megara, being a bit of an artist, was off supervising the construction of the sleeping quarters for the trainees, which she'd designed to resemble the halls of the Coliseum as much as possible. The same Olympian architecture was being applied to their living quarters, and the trio would be a lot more at home.

Once the training had been completed, Hercules went to take a shower (thanks to the Coalition, the miracle invention of indoor plumbing quickly spread throughout the known worlds), before he and Megara flew over to Agrabah on Pegasus to do some grocery shopping. Meanwhile Phil went to go check the training equipment before showering himself, and then taking his turn to supervise the construction.

While at the moment they were rather restricted on where they could go without either Pegasus or a Gummi Ship, that would change in the next few weeks. Once the council decided to turn the old ruins into a training facility, they immediately began constructing a railway line running between the ruins, the Cave of Wonders, and Agrabah itself, with materials imported from Twilight Town. While everyone knew the reunification of the world would take several years, the Council figured it was best to start preparing for it now.

Hercules smiled as he and Meg walked past the countless market stalls of Agrabah a little under an hour later. Despite being cut off from his parents, both mortal and immortal, he, Meg, Pegasus and Phil had adapted pretty well. He still missed everyone back home, but there was nothing he could do to change that. At least he had the satisfaction of knowing that his old home was in good hands. He'd been training an apprentice for the last few years to take over all the hero work when he either got seriously injured or just needed some downtime. He could only hope the guy was up for taking over full-time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's not a lot of supplementary info about the talents/hobbies of the characters from Hercules, so I decided to have Meg be an artist. Mainly because given her personality she's not going to be the type to just sit around doing domestic stuff while Hercules is off helping Phil with training.


	13. A Dragon's Nest

#### Interstellar Prison – Control Room

#### August 13, 2015

The Hellfire Club had taken control of the abandoned prison facility known to the galactic government as The Kiln a few days ago, quickly converting the decommissioned penitentiary into a base of operations. While lacking sufficient lab space for Yzma and Hamsterviel to develop new weapons and technology, it was a suitable starting point until they could acquire more territory. From there, they would spread out and conquer the rest of the galaxy. Diablo and Nebula were currently leading a stealth incursion into the ruins of the World That Never Was to retrieve one of Xehanort's prisoners, and wouldn't be back until tomorrow.

Right now, Maleficent was standing in the control room of her new base. Under any other circumstances she would be looking down at the central area that once housed the galaxy's worst criminals. Instead, she was gripping the wall like her life depended on it, struggling to prevent herself from fainting out of shock.  _I can't believe it,_ she thought to herself as she fought to regain consciousness. In all her years of preparing for the worst, this was the most unexpected thing to have happened to her in the last several decades, even more than Riku's betrayal or her imprisonment in the Realm of Darkness.

She was pregnant. She and Hades had been engaged for two weeks now, but the prospect of having children again filled her with equal parts joy and unease. Not that she didn't want to have children with her future husband, but after what happened to her son from her previous marriage, she was a little hesitant to dive into motherhood so quickly. A cushioned puffing sound alerted her to the arrival of her fiancé.

"What's going on?" Hades asked, putting a concerned hand on his future wife's shoulder. "You're never this exhausted unless you've been in a fight. Babe, what happened?" Maleficent took a deep breath to steady herself before answering.

"I'm going to be a mother again," she replied. Almost immediately, Hades rushed to her side. As Maleficent's fiancé the only being in her inner circle to know the full details of her past, he knew exactly why she was shocked. He knew how nervous she really was about having another child. After her first husband left her after the death of their son, she was understandably anxious about how things would go the second time around.

"Maleficent, babe, I'm not going anywhere," he said reassuringly. "We'll figure things out together. I know you're scared after what happened to your first kid but this time it's different. Our enemies think you're dead. We've set up shop somewhere we won't be discovered. And we have enough allies and underlings willing to lay down their lives to protect us. Anyone who attempts to harm our child will suffer in such a way that they will beg us to let them die."

Maleficent smiled at that declaration as Hades took her hand. Beneath the calm veneer she projected to the rest of her allies, she was still nervous about the safety of her new child, but her fiancé was right. Worrying about what ifs would ultimately accomplish nothing. Without another word, she pulled Hades over and kissed him before they walked back to their quarters to resume making plans for their upcoming wedding. They didn't know what the future held for them, but they would protect their child by any means necessary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maleficent and Hades' kid will only play a minor role in the series, but I have some ideas for another post-KH3 series that, as of 2018, I have yet to work on, in which their daughter was a major character. Maybe over the summer I might get around to developing those ideas further and starting it.


	14. Hail Hydra

#### The World That Never Was – The Soundless Prison

#### August 14, 2015

"Is this him?" Neubla asked as she and Diablo stood in the storage room just off the prison block of the Organization's now-abandoned castle. They'd been sent to liberate a prisoner Xehanort had apparently been keeping in a stasis pod for over seventy years. Based on the now deceased Keyblade Master's testimony, the man, apparently named Schmidt, seemed like a potential candidate for membership in the Hellfire Club. So Maleficent had dispatched the duo, accompanied by a squad of Leroys, to release him and either bring him back to the Kiln if he was willing to join, or execute him if he refused.

"It is," the raven-turned-human answered as they looked at the translucent, bud-shaped pod containing a man with red skin, a misshapen head, and black leather clothing. With a nod of acknowledgement, Nebula walked over to the console the pod had been hooked up to and began pressing buttons to release the prisoner. After a few minutes, the pod opened like a flower blooming. Its occupant gave a low groan as he slowly regained consciousness.

"Where am I?" he asked in a thick accent that tethered worlds referred to as German. "And who are you?"

"We are but servants of one much more powerful than us," Diablo replied with a flourish. "As for where you are, we've just liberated you from the dungeons of a castle once owned by a madman by the name of Xehanort."

"Xehanort!?" the man scoffed. "That arrogant young man with the ridiculous silver hair and his silly golden eyes? Ha! He's a fool if he thinks people will share his fascination with Darkness. Where is he?"

"He's been dead for two weeks now," Nebula commented. "And from what I heard he was pushing eighty by that point." For a moment, the red-skinned man gasped incredulously before quickly composing himself.

"In that case," he replied. "I thank you for freeing me. I assume your leader has some grander purpose for securing my release?" Diablo grinned. He liked this guy already.

"Maleficent seeks to conquer the known universe," Nebula answered with a smirk. "To that end, she has been gathering a cabal of powerful and like-minded allies to achieve their shared goal." At this, the skull-faced man broke out into a grin.

"Then it would seem this "Maleficent" and I have much in common," he said. "I am in. Now, how do you plan to get us out of here?"

"That's already been taken care of," Diablo replied with a smirk as they walked out of the storage room into the hallway where the Leroys were waiting. The bird-man gestured with his hand and a Corridor of Darkness opened against the far wall of the storage room. The raven had been expecting the man to be shocked and confused by Nebula's skin, the Leroys, and his instantaneous portal generation. But to Diablo's surprise, the man didn't even bat an eyelid at sights that would leave most first time inter-world travelers stuttering in surprise.  _Although considering his own appearance, he's probably used to seeing things that are strange,_ Diablo mused as he lead the group through the Dark Corridor and out into the main offices of the Kiln.

"You're late," Maleficent remarked as Diablo, Nebula, and the freed prisoner entered the conference room.

"Apologies, M' Lady," her avian familiar said with a quick bow. "The Daybreak Coalition put security measures in place around the ruins of The World That Never Was, figuring that we'd come back to loot the place now that Xehanort's gone. The citadel's Munny vault and computer systems were completely cleared out, but we were able to liberate the prisoner Xehanort attempted to trade for the Princess of Heart. He's agreed to join our cause."

Maleficent nodded, and Diablo morphed back into his natural feathered form before flying out of the office. Nebula stepped into the hall and closed the door while she stood guard outside.

"So," she began when she and the red-skinned man were alone in her new office. "Who are you? And what makes you think you're qualified to be a member of my cabal? My familiar tells me you've agreed to join, but the only thing I have to go on for your potential as a member of this little club of ours is Xehanort's word, and he is not one I would consider trustworthy." The man grinned malevolently as Maleficent offered him a glass of wine that had been sitting on the table.

"My name is Johan Schmidt," the man answered. "But my followers refer to me as The Red Skull. On my world, I was given tremendous power, and the means to conquer. If you can get me back in contact with my world, I can supply a vast army, advanced technology, and a less derelict base of operations." Maleficent smiled insidiously.  _He's prefect material for the cabal._

"Welcome to the Hellfire Club," she said with a malicious grin.  _Now we can finally start rebuilding my empire again,_ she thought as she led her newest ally out of the office and toward the conference room where the rest of her inner circle was currently gathered. It was time to take stock of their progress and begin planning for the future. With the help of the Red Skull, the Hellfire Club would once more become a force to be feared throughout the galaxy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rest assured, RS will be a major character in the later Acolytes of Chaos stories. The meeting between himself and Xehanort that he references in this chapter will be featured in detail in a future one-shot.


	15. Family Reunion

#### The Land of Departure – Throne Room

#### August 15, 2015

"I never realized how quiet the castle is when Ven's gone," Aqua commented as she lounged in the central throne with a book in her lap. As leader of the remaining Keyblade Wielders, she had to get used to sitting in Master Eraqus' old chair. So she'd taken up a habit of coming down every morning to sit on the throne and read a book. Turning her attention back to the present, she continued. "We all used to do everything together," she continued. "And now…"

"Now everyone's got their own things going on," Terra finished as he walked over from where he was leaning against the wall. "Still," he added with a sly smile. "It's nice to have some time  _alone._ " Aqua smirked at his comment when they heard the doors open downstairs and Ven's voice drifting up through the open air chamber. From the sound of things, he wasn't alone.

"And in here's the throne room," he said to whoever he was talking to. "This is where we have all the big ceremonies like the Mark of Mastery exam."  _It seems he finally found his family,_ Aqua thought to herself with a barely suppressed giggle.  _And now he's giving them a tour of the castle._ She looked over at Terra and signaled that they should head downstairs and introduce themselves. Terra nodded, and the two of them made their way towards the eastern staircase just as Ven rounded the corner accompanied by two people who were clearly his parents.

"Hey guys!" Ven called out as he raced up the stairs and nearly tackled Terra to the ground. Aqua burst out laughing as the two boys stumbled away from the stairs as Ven's parents came up behind him. Once everyone had recovered from the laughing fit, Ven introduced his parents to his closest friends.

"It's nice to meet you," Ven's mother said. "Ven's been telling us so much about you both."

"Hopefully he never mentioned the cake incident," Aqua commented with a chuckle, prompting Terra to blush as red as a tomato as everyone else in the room laughed. As the laughter died down, Terra recovered from his blushing enough for him and Aqua to lead their guests on a tour of the castle. They wound their way around the ancient fortress from one end to the other. They started out in the west wing, showing off the kitchen and dining room before moving up to the double level library. After that, they showed Ven's parents the room that now served as a storage area for workout equipment before moving across to the bedrooms.

"And this is my room," Ven said proudly as he lead his parents into the room where he'd lived ever since his memories were lost. Emi teared up a bit as she looked around the room at all the little things her oldest son had collected over the years. These last few days with her son were a tremendous blessing, but she knew when she and Taro came to the Land of Departure that it wasn't going to last forever. Terra and Aqua had become a second family to Ventus since he'd disappeared from the Islands, and although being reunited was a tremendous joy, he'd already put down roots here.

Ven rushed over and hugged his mother as she started to cry. His dad quickly followed, while Terra and Aqua stood in the doorway, unsure of what to do or say. As all of this was happening, Vanitas walked in, having returned from a reconnaissance mission in Halloween Town, and came upstairs to investigate the noise.

"Mom, it's okay," Ven reassured her. "I'll still come back and visit on the weekends, and you and dad can come visit me here anytime you want. I'm not leaving for good." This lead to a family hug with all three of them. Terra, Aqua, and Vanitas decided that now would be a good time to give Ven and his parents some space, only for the family to insist on all three of them joining in on the group hug.

"You took care of our son for all these years," Taro said. "As far as we're concerned, you're all part of the family." So Terra and Aqua quickly stepped into the room without further prompting, dragging a reluctant and sarcastic Vanitas behind them.

A few hours later, Vanitas was sitting on his bed with the lights turned out. The only illumination in the room came from the stars hanging up in the nighttime sky. Ventus had thankfully left to bring his parents back to those tiny little islands a few hours ago. Terra and Aqua were supposed to be cooking dinner, but when Vanitas walked into the kitchen to find the two of them making out like there was no tomorrow, he just took a Dark Corridor to Twilight Town and brought back some pizza.

Now he sat on his bed wearing black jeans and a matching baggy shirt as he finished off his last slice of pizza before tossing his paper plate into the trash can near the door. A minute later, a knock came at the door.  _Great,_ Vanitas thought to himself.  _Terra and Aqua finally finished messing around and want me to come eat whatever foul concoction they cooked up._

"Come in," he called out.  _Might as well get it over with,_ he added mentally. To his surprise, it wasn't Terra or Aqua who came in, but Ventus.

"Hey," the other boy said. "Sorry if my parents embarrassed you earlier."

"Who me?" Vanitas replied sarcastically. "Never." Ven chuckled at his dark half's snarkiness. The laughter proved to be contagious as even Vanitas fought to suppress a giggle. "In all seriousness though, being treated as part of the extended family is one thing, but your parents acting like I'm your long lost brother was a little annoying."

"Well you are the physical embodiment of my dark side, so you kind of are," Ventus pointed out. "Which technically means that they're your parents too."

"That doesn't mean I have to like it," Vanitas retorted. "Don't they have any idea what I am?"

"Of course they do," Ven answered. "I told them. They didn't care about the fact that you're pure darkness. Quite honestly, once I told them about what your life with Xehanort was like, they looked like they wanted to bring him back from the dead just so they could send him back themselves." Vanitas burst out laughing at that final statement. Though he would never admit it, he was actually touched that Ven's parents actually cared about him. He represented all the torture that Xehanort had put their son through and as far as he was concerned they had every right to hate him and treat him as an abomination against nature. And yet they accepted him as part of the family with open arms. No strings attached.

Vanitas didn't really know what to say to that, but Ven just smiled knowingly and bid his darker half goodnight before exiting the room. With that Vanitas was once again alone with his thoughts. But this time, his thoughts were less pessimistic and more trying to comprehend the fact that after years of abuse with Xehanort he had parental figures who actually cared about his well-being and saw him as something other than a tool to be discarded when he was no longer useful. In the cave-like darkness of his quarters, his lips twitched upwards into a small, contented smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sora & Ven's parents' reaction to Vanitas (and later to Roxas and Xion) is inspired by how they reacted to Xion in[Imaginary Numbers](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10240228/1/Imaginary-Numbers) by Regiss over on fanfiction.net


	16. God Help The Outcasts

#### Enchanted Dominion – Forest Clearing

#### August 16, 2015

"What do you think?" Phoebus asked his wife as they looked at the cottage they were about to move into. When they first heard that they were cut off from Paris, the couple were initially devastated. They would never see their friends back home again, and their neighbors would think that they'd either died, been kidnapped, or run off somewhere. But after a few days of mourning their sudden separation from home, they realized that they needed to pick themselves up and make the most of their situation.

So Phoebus and Esmerelda spent the week travelling from world to world in search of a place that they felt they could call home. After travelling around for a while, three fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, told them about a now-abandoned cottage out in the forests of Enchanted Dominion. Now they were standing outside waiting to bring the belongings they'd brought with them from La Cite Des Cloches inside.

"It could use a little work," Esmerelda commented. "This place obviously hasn't been lived in for years."

"Well when we're done with it, it'll look better than ever," Phoebus replied as they unloaded. "And whenever we want to add onto it, we can just build an extension ourselves." His wife smiled as they nodded and started unpacking. It was a long, tiring process carrying everything from the cart into the house. Even with Esmerelda's pet goat Djali helping, it was after sunset when they finally brought the last box inside and moved the cart around to the side of the house.

As they cooked their first meal in the new house, the two felt at peace. Phoebus' new job as a soldier in the Coalition military meant that they wouldn't be living in poverty, and while they missed their neighbors back in Paris, they were quickly making friends here in the Enchanted Dominion and on other worlds. Life was good.

* * *

#### Twilight Town – Clock Tower Interior

#### August 16, 2015

Quasimodo grinned as he leaped through the bell tower of Twilight Town's train station, ringing the bells along the way. It felt good to keep himself busy. Even though Frollo keeping him locked in Notre Dame for most of his life was a cruel, terrible thing, he actually enjoyed ringing the bells of the cathedral every day. Which was why, once he and his friends had learned that they would never be able to return to Paris again, he'd gotten on a passenger Gummi Ship for the first world with a bell tower he could find.

He'd ended up in Twilight Town and promptly applied for a job at the train station ringing the bells during the day shift. With some money given to him by Coalition Intelligence to help cover mortgage, he bought himself a small apartment a few blocks from the station so that he wouldn't have to walk very far to work each morning. Although Twilight Town's clock tower would never match up to the grandeur of Notre Dame in his mind, the hunchback was settling in quite nicely.

He missed his model of the city he'd constructed back home, but he could easily construct a new one. The new architecture of Twilight Town and more diverse clothing styles meant that he now had lots of new avenues to explore in terms of refining his wood carving skills. While he was still a little shy about going out and meeting people, his new neighbors were all very welcoming and a few even brought over housewarming gifts as he moved into his new home. The one thing that couldn't be replaced, however, were his gargoyle friends up in the bell tower. Hugo, Victor, and Laverne had been his constant companions for much of his life, and he'd miss hearing their constant bickering.

But dwelling on the past wouldn't change anything. So he picked himself up, dusted himself off, and came here to Twilight Town. To be honest, he was adjusting as well as could be expected. He still got homesick for Paris every few days, but for the most part he was adapting just fine. One of his neighbors had invited him over for dinner after his shift was over, and Quasimodo was actually looking forward to it. In the worlds of the Daybreak Coalition, there was none of the stigma against physical deformity that he'd encountered in Paris. His neighbors accepted him as he was without any comment, and that fact warmed the Hunchback formerly of Notre Dame's heart.


	17. Honor to Us All

#### Enchanted Dominion – Forbidden Mountains

#### August 17, 2015

"Anything there?" Mulan asked Mushu as the small dragon returned to the staging area after doing recon with Cri-Kee in the ruins of Maleficent's fortress. The Coalition military had received word from the intelligence division that remnants of Maleficent's cabal were taking refuge in her old castle in the Enchanted Dominion. Eager to stamp out the Hellfire Club once and for all, Mulan and Shang were dispatched with a platoon of soldiers to capture the villains. Upon their arrival, Mushu and Cri Kee had been dispatched to scout ahead and confirm that the reports were true.

"Oh yeah," Mushu replied as he climbed up in the saddle of Mulan's horse, Khan. "There were a lot of those little red monsters climbin' all over the place. And there was that big buff guy in red lounging around the throne room. Plus this big spider monster running all over the place with this giant purple lizard that kept disappearing on us and a big fat guy with a lot of eyes and crab legs." Mulan turned to Shang and nodded at the confirmation that Gaston, Randall, and Scroop were all inside the castle. With the rumors confirmed, they returned to their camp on the outskirts of the nearby forest to plan their attack.

An hour later, a group of nine warriors made their way through a network of tunnels Cri Kee had discovered at the base of the mountain that lead all the way up into the castle. Once they exited the tunnels, the strike team split up. Yao, Ling, and Chen Po made their way towards the castle's upper levels to disable any catapults and cannons that the Club may have put in place. Dilan, Aeleus, and Phoebus snuck into the dungeons to release any prisoners and attack the villains from behind.

Finally, Mulan, Shang, and Hercules went to confront the villains in the throne room. As everyone got into position, Leon, Yuffie, and Cloud marched up the mountain leading the remaining troops in a frontal assault on the castle. While the Leroys were distracted fighting off the attackers, the infiltration teams would strike. As the teams reached their stations, Mulan nodded to Shang across the entryway to the throne room. Shang nodded back and held up his hands as he counted down the seconds until the attack was supposed to begin.

When he reached zero, the walls of the fortress rocked as the battle began. The three-person team charged into the throne room with swords drawn, catching the villains inside off guard. Before any of the three villains could react, Hercules bolted forward and tackled Randall Boggs to the floor. Mulan took swipes at Gaston while Shang ran over and started hacking at Scroop's legs. Outside, pumpkin-shaped cryo-grenades from Halloween Town went off all over the citadel's courtyard as the main attack force stormed the castle. As the duel in the throne room went on, a large crustacean monster came charging out of the shadows towards Shang.

Randall recovered from the surprise enough to try to wiggle out and disappear, but Hercules managed to grab the reptilian monster's tail before he could go completely transparent. The demigod whirled the serpentine villain around like a while as he spun across the room. Gaston was quickly knocked unconscious, freeing up Mulan to take on Waternoose, allowing Shang to focus on the gigantic spider. Outside, Yao, Ling, and Chen Po fought their way down from the castle towers.

The citadel was sparsely populated, and after a few minutes of battle, Scroop and the remaining Leroys fell. As the strike team finished mopping up the remaining Hellfire Club forces, Mulan and Shang casually discussed dinner plans for the evening. Everyone from the Land of Dragons was upset by their inability to return home, but after a few days of mourning the fact that they'd never see their neighbors again. But on the bright side, they hadn't left family behind.

Mulan's parents and grandmother had accompanied her to Radiant Garden, and Shang's family had already passed away. Yao, Ling, and Chen Po brought along their wives, and everyone had brought the statues of their ancestors along with them. Now the five warriors were serving as soldiers in the new Coalition Army. Although they could never go back to their homeland again, the Emperor had had the foresight to make sure that when they left for Radiant Garden they brought home with them.

* * *

#### Interstellar Prison – Conference Room:

#### August 17, 2015

"To getting the so-called heroes off our trail," Maleficent said as she and her inner circle raised their glasses to toast their short-term victory. "Now that they believe they have won, they will no longer actively hunt us down, allowing us to quietly rebuild our forces in the background." Everyone in the inner circle nodded their heads in agreement.

"It's such a waste to lose such skilled fighters, though," Red Skull commented as he finished sipping his beverage. "The lizard's cloaking abilities would have come in handy."

"True," Cruella conceded before taking another puff of her cigar. "But the benefits of throwing those three under the bus far outweigh the disadvantages."

"Agreed," Hook added while slamming his trademark appendage on the table. "Scroop's only loyalty is to himself. He can't be trusted to hold our best interests at heart. Waternoose, Gaston, and Boggs are more loyal, but they care more about their own personal glory than the overall goal. In the long run they would only have gotten in the way. Better to cut off the dead branch now so that the tree can grow even larger.

"Wiser words have never been spoken, pal," Hades remarked from his seat to the right of Maleficent.

"Indeed," Maleficent finished. "And now that we have bought ourselves enough room to convince the Daybreak Coalition of my demise, we can begin our preparations for our next attempt at conquering the universe." Everyone voiced their agreement before they moved on to discussing the logistics of their next campaign of conquest. Between the Keyblade Wielders, Daybreak Coalition, Galactic Armada, and the so-called Avengers, there were enough factions willing to rise up against them that spreading their rule, let alone enforcing it, would require heavy duty weapons. Fortunately, Maleficent and the Red Skull had a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yao, Ling, and Chen Po being married is a nod to the Disney DTV sequel Mulan II. That movie isn't canon in TXW, but I liked the idea of that trio from Mulan getting married on their own, so I just inserted that as a nod.


	18. Web of Spies

#### Twilight Town – Mansion Computer Room

#### August 18, 2015

"Well?" Cassim asked as Vanitas emerged from the transporter out of the virtual Twilight Town. The new Coalition Intelligence Network had moved into the abandoned mansion a few days ago, and today they were finally cleaning out the lower levels. Since what little was left of the simulation was no longer needed, Vanitas had been sent inside to close the Dark Corridor to the World That Never Was so the digital rooms could finally be deleted from the computer.

"It's done," Vanitas replied with a nod. "The Corridor is closed."

"Excellent," Ienzo commented from his seat at the computer. "Now I can delete what's left of that simulation to free up the computer's memory." Although the former Cloaked Schemer had reopened the old arcade in Radiant Garden, he still made a deal with Coalition Intelligence to serve as an on-call consultant when they needed his assistance. Right now, that was happening a lot more than he wanted since he was the only member of the Intelligence Network with any semblance of tech savviness.

Since moving into the old mansion, the agents of the CIN had been rapidly reconfiguring the space to suit their purposes as a base of operations. One of the castles they'd been given access to was being converted into a prison for criminals too dangerous to incarcerate in other prisons, while the ice castle on Arendelle's North Mountain had become a training facility. Because of the remoteness of the mansion here in Twilight Town, Cassim had decided to turn the mansion into CIN's command center.

In order to make room for the new furniture and equipment, some of the original furniture had to be taken out. The furniture in the dining room remained, along with all the desks and a few other couches and coffee tables, but all of the beds and dressers were cleaned out and sold to make room. What were once bedrooms had now become offices. A few interior rooms were converted into break rooms or a miniature barracks for when agents had to stay overnight, and additional rooms were being created underground.

While Ienzo worked to update the mansion's computer system and connect it to The Grid over in Radiant Garden, Vanitas and Cassim walked upstairs into the mansion library. That too, had been modified. Now a single hatch lead down into the basement instead of the entire floor disappearing. A few minutes later, the two walked into what used to be the White Room. Cassim flipped a switch on the wall, lowering a second, tinted layer of glass in front of the window to ensure the security of the room.

"So what now?" Vanitas asked as they sat at opposite ends of the conference table. "Gaston and those other two went down too easy. They had to be plants to throw us off the scent of the rest of the Hellfire Club."

"I agree," Cassim replied. "But unfortunately the other surviving members had gone to ground to avoid detection. Until we can pinpoint their location the most we can do for now is keep our eyes and ears peeled for any sign of Maleficent or her allies. It's unlikely that the witch actually perished, otherwise her robe would have been incinerated in the explosion when the Battle of Cable Town began. But until she and her cabal resurface, there's little we can do."

Vanitas nodded as he reached under the table and turned on the holographic projector that had been installed a few weeks ago. An instant later security footage of Randall's and Gaston's interrogations in Dwarf Woodlands appeared a few inches above the tabletop. Although the two villains were surprisingly cooperative, they hadn't revealed anything useful.  _They've definitely been set up to take the fall so the Hellfire Club can rebuild their support network in secret,_ the dark haired Keyblade wielder thought to himself as he and Cassim discussed what little information the two had actually revealed.

"Any theories on where Maleficent's gone to ground?" he asked one the footage ended.

"A few," Cassim replied thoughtfully. "But given how the military has been cracking down on security these last few weeks, they're all unlikely. Our best move is to have agents stationed on each member world of the Coalition as an early warning system should there be any further signs of Hellfire Club activity." The former King of Thieves' second in command nodded in agreement.

"Then once the Coalition government has stabilized," Vanitas added. "We should reinforce those sentinels with scouts. Maleficent knows she won't be able to stay hidden on any known world for long, so she's most likely gone into hiding on a world we haven't discovered yet. Once everything has calmed down in Coalition space, we need to send our agents out to start scouting undiscovered worlds for any sign of that witch and her cabal. It'll reveal potential candidates for new members of the Coalition and help narrow down the places she can hide. Might as well kill two birds with one swing."

"My thoughts exactly," the director of CIN commented.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CIN is pronounced the same as Bahamut SIN from Final Fantasy 7 Adventu Children. It is being set up as a KH-based expy of S.H.I.E.L.D., with Cassim taking the Nick Fury-type leadership role with Vanitas as the Maria Hill-esque second in command.


	19. Forgiven, But Not Forgotten

#### Radiant Garden – The Borough

#### August 19, 2015

Terra tried to ignore the whispers as he walked through the streets of Radiant Garden, but it was hard to. He could hear the fear and anger all around him as he walked towards the castle with Aqua behind him. And he didn't blame any of them. He had caused so much pain to all of these people. Yes, Aqua continued to remind him that he was never in control of his actions and tha the fault was with Xehanort, but a part of him would always blame himself for the devastation he had caused to this world all those years ago.

Ven and Aqua had suggested he cut it, but he insisted on keeping his hair the way Xehanort had left it as a reminder of everything he had done. When they reached the city square, though, he was beginning to regret not wearing his armor today. He should have expected the angry crowd that had gathered in the square. Right now, everyone was just standing there, staring at him. All the people who lost friends… loved ones… because of what he did. Aqua quickly caught on to his discomfort.

"It was Xehanort's fault, Terra," she whispered. "Just ignore them." And that was the exact moment when someone in the crowd decided to hurl a tomato at his face.

"TRAITOR!" the woman screamed. The accusation quickly echoed through the assembled crowd as angered citizens of Radiant Garden unleashed all their pent up rage at the man who destroyed their home. A bold few even started throwing rocks at Terra, and he didn't even try to dodge. Aqua had to throw up a Reflega spell to keep him from being stoned to death on the spot. Even then, the angry mob surged forward and switched from throwing stones to pounding on the magical barrier with their bare hands.

"They have every right to be angry with me, Aqua," Terra commented sadly.

"It wasn't your fault Terra," Aqua replied for the hundredth time.

"Yes it was, Aqua!" he snapped. "I wasn't strong enough to fight off his control all those years ago. I'm responsible for everything Xehanort has done because I wasn't strong enough to kick him out of my body the first time."

"That doesn't mean you deserve to be beaten to death for!" Aqua fired back as cracks began to appear in the barrier. "You need to stop beating yourself up over things that can't be changed. You may not have been able to force him out of your body, but you were still able to fight him long enough to wipe his memories. If you hadn't taken your shared body out of the fight then, thousands more people would have suffered." The cracks in the shield spread until the glowing translucent sphere was only one blow away from shattering completely.

The entire crowd stepped back as the woman who incited the mob walked up with a rock in each hand. She was just about to swing the final blow when the silence was broken by a familiar voice everyone in the square recognized.

"ENOUGH!" Ansem the Wise roared. The crowd parted as the recently reinstated ruler of Radiant Garden strode towards the barrier, flanked by Dilan and Aeleus. The people in the crowd wore looks of shame on their faces. But at the same time, their eyes said that while they were ashamed at how they'd acted, their anger at their king's former apprentice remained.

"I'm ashamed," Ansem continued as he reached the edge of the barrier. The crowd stepped back as the royal guards fanned out. Aqua lowered the shield, and together she and the other two apprentices put themselves between Terra and the crowd. "Master Terra was as much a victim of Xehanort and Braig's machinations as the rest of us were. The madman used magic to possess the boy in order to extend his own life. This has been common knowledge since Xehanort's downfall, and yet here I find an angry mob prepared to stone a man to death for actions over which he had no conscious or willing control. If Radiant Garden is to be the beacon of light it once was, how can its people afford to stoop so low?"

The once violent crowd was silent now as they contemplated their king's words. A few people send Terra glances of understanding and pity while others aired their grievances against "Xehanort". Aqua glanced at Terra, mouthing that he needed to talk to the crowd himself. Nodding in understanding, he stepped out from behind the palace guards.

"You all hate me for one reason or another," he began. "And each of you has every right to want my head on a pike. Xehanort may have been in the one in control, but it was my body doing all of those terrible things. I can barely sleep at night because the guilt of all the suffering I unwillingly put everyone through. I don't deserve any forgiveness, but beating me into a bloody pulp won't bring back the people we've lost. I've lost people I cared about too. Xehanort manipulated me into fighting my father, then finished him off after we' worn each other down."

"My friends and family may have forgiven me," he went on. "But I still haven't forgiven myself. But I realize now that if I'm going to move on with my life I'm going to have to." When he finished speaking, Terra stepped back behind Aqua and the guards as they waited to see how the angry mob would react. For a few moments, everyone simply stood there in silence. Then, to Terra's surprise, the crowd began clapping and cheering.

"Well said," Ansem commented as the applause died down. "Clearly, you've changed a few minds today. How about we head inside before another mob shows up?"

"We might as well," Terra and Aqua both answered as the group made their way up the path toward the restored castle. Along the way, Terra finally had the chance to talk to Dilan and Aeleus about how they felt about his possession at the hands of Xehanort. As it turned out, all of their anger was directed at Xehanort himself.

"Xehanort manipulated you as much as he did us," Dilan remarked. "As far as we and the rest of Ansem's former apprentices are concerned, you're always welcome in the castle."

"And if you're still having trouble moving on from those times," Aeleus added, "Ienzo and I are starting up a support group for Organization XIII survivors. We're trying to get in touch with Lea, Xion, and Roxas before we decide on when to have our first meeting, but once we finalize a date, you're welcome to come join us." Terra cheered up a bit after that and thanked the two guards for the invitation as they reached the castle entrance hall. As they walked along, Ansem listened silently before leading the group into the library.

"I just wanted to take the opportunity to apologize," Terra said to Ansem when the group was finally seated around a small table in the corner. "I wanted to tell you how sorry I am for everything Xehanort made me do." Before he could go any further, Ansem held up a hand to stop him.

"You don't need to apologize, young man," the monarch interjected. "Like I told me people, you were as much a victim as the rest of us. It is unfair to judge you for actions that you had no control over." With that, he pulled Terra in for a hug and told the Key bearer that even if Xehanort had technically been his apprentice, the man would always have a home here in Radiant Garden. Terra felt a weight lifting off his chest as he heard that. With so many people offering their support, now he could finally begin to forgive himself. It would take a while before he did so fully, but right now he was off to a pretty decent start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first wrote this chapter, I was toying with ideas for how Ansem's other apprentices would get a long with Terra. Then I came up with the support group idea. I decided to take the idea and run with it because it made sense. After all, they've all died before. Twice even. So it made sense that they'd all meet up and talk about the trauma attached to dying and coming back twice and doing Xehanort's dirty work.


	20. Nightmares and Homework

#### Twilight Town – Lea, Namine, Roxas, and Xion's House

#### August 20, 2015

"So what are you guys going to do for the summer homework?" Olette asked as the group at around the living room and dining area of the house. Lea was off visiting Queen Elsa in Arendelle, leaving the three teenagers in the house to themselves. Since they only had two more weeks until school started, they'd decided to get their summer homework done today. Hayner was reluctant to actually do the homework since he, Pence, and Olette were starting their senior year, Roxas, Xion, and Namine had never actually been to school, so Olette and Pence convinced Hayner to help pitch in so the three soon-to-be Freshmen would impress the teachers.

"We could always do the seven wonders of Twilight Town," Pence commented. Roxas burst out laughing at that.

"That's exactly what we did in the simulated Twilight Town," he chuckled. "And all of the rumors were completely bogus." At that Pence immediately started pumping Roxas dry for information on what the "Seven Wonders" were like in the digital metropolis. The older teen was disappointed with how simple the mysteries were explained, but eventually they came up with the idea of comparing the real and simulated town for their independent study.

Pence and Olette went over to the usual spot to gather Pence's notes on the real Twilight Town's Seven Wonders, while Roxas started writing down what he remembered from his digital prison. Namine offered to do sketches to help illustrate the project, while Xion shyly admitted that she didn't feel she had anything to contribute to the paper, only for Roxas to assign her the task of combining everything together on the computer. With a plethora of information to choose from, the seven teens finished their assignment just in time to order a few pizzas for dinner.

While everyone ate, Roxas pulled out his inter-planetary communicator Aqua had given him so he could contact Radiant Garden. After the meeting in the Land of Departure the previous week, Roxas, Xion, and Lea ultimately decided that they didn't want to keep wielding the Keyblade. While their blades were still bonded to them, they politely declined membership in the new Order of the Keyblade. Aqua was perfectly understanding of their reason for leaving the group, and the former Organization members promised to help out whenever they were needed.

She'd given them each long-range communicators so she could quickly get in touch with them in an emergency, and Roxas was using his to call Ansem the Wise and ask about what information had been made public by the Coalition. Although it would take a while for him to really forgive the ruler of Radiant Garden for what he'd been put through, he wasn't angry anymore since Ansem had at least admitted that he was wrong.

A few hours later, Roxas was sound asleep in his bed when he was woken up by a knock at the door. Curious, he groggily rubbed his eyes as he got up and walked over to find out who had woken him up. He opened the door to find Xion standing there nervously. She was wearing long white pajama pants with blue polka dots and a black long-sleeved shirt. Her cheeks looked wet, as if she'd been crying recently.

"Xion, what is it?" he asked with a yawn, concerned about why she'd been crying. He hated when she was upset. It made him want to find whatever was making her cry and do whatever he could to stop it.

"It's nothing," she answered nervously after a long pause. "I'm sorry I woke you up." She turned to head back to her room when Roxas grabbed her arm.  _Something's definitely wrong,_ he thought to himself as he noticed the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Xion…" he said. "What's wrong?" For a moment, she hesitated. Then she took a deep breath and answered.

"I had a nightmare," she replied. "I keep dreaming we were fighting at the clock tower again. Only this time… you were the one that died." The tears finally started flowing as Roxas pulled her in for a hug. Seeing her so upset made his heart hurt.

"It's okay," he said quietly as he led her into his room and shut the door so they wouldn't wake Lea and Namine. "Xion, I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. It's all in the past." But despite his words, Roxas knew he wasn't the only one having those dreams. While they'd all adjusted to being alive again pretty easily, they'd still  _died._ Coming back to life wasn't going to automatically fix all the trauma that came with being reduced to disembodied voices in Sora's head. After a few minutes, Xion had finished crying and they resumed talking.

"I keep having it every night," she explained. "Some nights I die all over again, and other times I end up killing you." Roxas rubbed her back as he held her in his arms.

"It's okay," he reassured her. "We're both here right now. That's all that matters. Everything that happened that day is all in the past." For the next few minutes they just sat there in silence.

"Can I sleep in your room?" she asked after a while. "I can sleep on the floor if you want, I just don't want to be alone tonight."

"Xion, I'm not going to make you sleep on the floor," Roxas replied as he got out of bed and gestured for her to get in. While he got several extra pillows out of his closet, Xion protested that she didn't want to kick him out of his own bed. While Roxas laid the pillows down on the floor, they soon came to a compromise. A few minutes later, the two former Organization members were crammed onto Roxas' bed so that if Xion had any more nightmares, he could give her a supporting hug as soon as she woke up.

Two hours later, Xion bolted upright in her bed from the same dream. After taking a minute to dry her eyes and catch her breath, she leaned back on the bed and pulled Roxas in for a hug. His eyes slowly opened and he pulled her in closer to comfort her. He couldn't help but blush as they drifted off to sleep. After regaining his memories of Xion, he'd realized that he liked Xion the way Sora liked Kairi. But he was nervous about telling Xion. They'd only come back a few weeks ago, and he thought that with all their transitioning, it was too soon for him to say anything. And while in hindsight they'd had their romantic-sounding moments in the past, he was afraid she wouldn't feel the same way. But that was another dilemma for another time. As he cradled Xion in his arms, all he could think about was comforting her against the nightmares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The little scene at the end is a reference to a really great piece of Rokushi fanart I found on deviantart depicting the two of them lying in a bed together (which I can't find again because for some reason the original artist keeps deactivating his deviantart account every few months) hugging and figured Xion sleeping in Roxas' bed because she was having nightmares of her death in Days was the best way to reference that. Besides, the idea of the two of them having a bit of trauma over their deaths made sense, and they'll talk about it more when they go to the Organization support group meeting.
> 
> Xion's dream of killing Roxas is a reference to the plot of the amazing KH fanfic [Remember The Tides](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9580894/1/Remember-the-Tides) and its sequels.


	21. Devil in Disguise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some references to Vanitas' time with Xehanort during this chapter, so fair warning things will get a bit dark in regards to that.

#### Dwarf Woodlands – Flower Glade

#### August 21, 2015

Vanitas took a deep breath as he stepped out of the Dark Corridor into the forests of Dwarf Woodlands. Since things had quieted down with Maleficent's little club, he'd volunteered for patrol duty this afternoon to get out of the mansion and stretch his legs. Cassim had agreed to send him to sweep Dwarf Woodlands for any sign of Hellfire Club activity, and now here he was. With a digital map of the world, he set off through the woods to check the most likely sites of Club activity.

A few hours later, and he came up with nothing. No sign of any of Maleficent's allies. No hidden equipment caches. No secret bases. No hidden encampments full of soldiers. Nothing. It was as if the so-called "Mistress of All Evil" and her supporters had simply vanished into thin air.  _Which means they really are hiding beyond Coalition Space,_ he thought to himself as he stepped out of a Corridor of Darkness into a clearing containing a single worn down cottage. Deciding to finish up the mission and head back to the Land of Departure, he snuck over to the door and looked inside the window.

He couldn't see anything through the windows, and was just about to walk a few feet further to see if he could open the door when a voice called out behind him.

"What are you and who are you doing?" the man stuttered. "I mean…  _who_ are you? And  _what_ are you doing?" he corrected himself as Vanitas grimaced from the mental imagery the bearded dwarf jogging up had brought up in his mind.  _Not like that doesn't bring up unpleasant memories,_ he thought as six more dwarfs followed the first one. Xehanort had indeed given him "The Talk" during his time as the old man's apprentice, and that had been far from pleasant.

Any normal parent having that conversation with their child would talk about any question the kid had. But Vanitas had never been a child, and Xehanort was far from a decent parent. The old man had given him a bare bones explanation of how the human reproductive system worked before thrusting him into "training" which essentially amounted to being forced to sleep with prostitutes that Xehanort hired to "teach him how to make people happy," telling Vanitas that if he was going to get what he wanted in life, he needed to manipulate people emotionally  _and_ physically.

Vanitas always hated the fact that Xehanort was willing to pay people of any age and gender to sleep with the dark youth as training but the old geezer couldn't be bothered to buy his own apprentice something to eat once in a while (or cooking supplies so he could at least hunt for himself). Yet another reason he was glad the old man was gone.  _Maybe I should take Terra up on his offer to go to that stupid support group,_ he thought bitterly to himself as he returned his attention back to the present.

"I'm with Coalition Intelligence," he said calmly as he turned to face the seven dwarfs. "Just patrolling for any sign of Maleficent and her allies." He removed his new badge from the pocket of his jeans and showed it to them. He'd heard from Ven how quickly the dwarfs had jumped to conclusions, and for a moment he stood there, waiting to see how they'd react. To his surprise, instead of being suspicious and making snap judgements, they reacted the exact opposite of what he was expecting.

"Did you find those monsters?" one of them, who Ven had referred to as Grumpy, asked.

"Unfortunately not," Vanitas replied. "They've gone underground to avoid capture. We think they may have gone to worlds that haven't been discovered yet, but we're periodically sweeping all the worlds in Coalition space just to make sure." The dwarfs nodded in approval.

"Well I'm glad we don't have to worry about them anymore," Happy commented. "Why don't you come in? You've probably been running all over the kingdom looking for any clues. You must be exhausted." Vanitas attempted to decline but the dwarfs wouldn't take no for an answer. A few minutes later, he found himself squeezed between the seven dwarfs around a dinner table that wasn't designed for human use. From Vanitas' perspective it was more of a coffee table.

He sat there with his arms on his knees, comically oversized in comparison to the rest of the room as the dwarfs regaled him with stories of the Hellfire Club stealing from their diamond mine (which Vanitas assumed was to supplement the income they received from Sherwood Forest's taxes) in the weeks before Maleficent's disappearance. Vanitas nodded and did his best to smile and laugh when they moved on to sharing tales of the comical adventures they'd had over the years.

He was just about to find an excuse to get out of there when there was a knock at the door. One of the dwarfs, Dopey, raced over and opened the door to reveal one someone Vanitas was hoping to avoid seeing.

"Good evening everyone," Snow White greeted as she and her husband James were let into the cottage. "I just wanted to let you know that Coalition Intelligence was sending an agent to search the kingdom for signs of Maleficent and her allies, so if you saw anyone who looked out of the ordinary not to jump to conclusions." When she finished speaking to the dwarfs, she looked up and noticed Vanitas sitting uncomfortably at the end of the table.

"Oh, hello," Prince James said as he stepped over to shake the Keyblade wielder's hand. "You must be Vanitas."

"What would you say if I am?" Vanitas asked cautiously. If he was going to be hunted down with torches and pitchforks, he might as well get ready to run now.

"I just wanted to thank you for your actions in defeating Xehanort," the prince answered with a chuckle. "It was very courageous of you to defy him like that."

"I didn't really help that much," Vanitas replied shyly. "I just fought two guys, convinced one to change sides, and landed in a few hits against the old man himself. Nothing special, really." He wasn't used to gotten praise for anything. Xehanort preferred to beat him for disobeying him. For failing. For not meeting his standards during training. Whenever he actually did something that might be considered worthy of praise, the only thing Xehanort ever gave him was stale food and an evening free of further physical exertion. Being praised for something he saw as insignificant was a completely alien experience for him.

"And yet without your contributions, there would have been much more casualties in that battle," James explained. "And I don't think the other "Guardians of Light" would have been able to defeat him without your help. You saved countless lives that day." Vanitas fought to keep himself from blushing. He'd discussed his time as Xehanort's apprentice with Ven, and the light Key bearer was working to correct his dark side's skewed perceptions of the universe. When Ven heard about this, he'd say that they needed to add rebuilding Vanitas' self-esteem to the list of things they needed to work on.

Snow White too, was grateful for Vanitas' actions, if a little hesitant to trust. But still, she'd heard of the young man's actions during the battle at the Keyblade Graveyard, and was willing to give the dark boy the benefit of the doubt. With the arrival of Snow White and her Prince Charming, there was no way Vanitas was getting out of that cottage anytime soon. The seven dwarfs quickly insisted that all three visitors stay for dinner, and Vanitas was quickly drafted into helping prepare the meal while Snow White gave him a crash course in cooking.

Vanitas hid a small smile behind his cup as he raised his glass to drink. After so many years of being condemned as a monster wherever he went, it secretly felt nice to be accepted without any questions. It sure beat that time Xehanort sent him to gather intel in La Cite Des Cloches. One look at his golden eyes, and every clergyman in the city was calling him a demon and trying to burn him at the stake. But that was all in the past. Right now, as he hid his satisfaction behind his usual mask of cynicism, he felt content with the world. He had a job that didn't torture him for failure or mistakes, people who cared about him (Ventus and Namine were the only people he really considered friends at this point), and he was respected wherever he went. Life was good.


	22. Xehanort Survivors Anonymous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a bit of fair warning that there's some mentions of sexual abuse in this chapter. I didn't go into detail, just that certain villains used the threat of sexual abuse to keep someone in line.

#### Radiant Garden – Community Center:

#### August 22, 2015

Dilan couldn't help but smile as he looked around the room in the new community center that had been set up in one of the newer districts of Radiant Garden. They'd gotten an even bigger turnout for their first meeting than they'd hoped. All of the surviving members of the original Organization XIII, Riku, Vanitas, Namine, Aqua, and Ventus sat in a circle in the small room they'd booked for the evening. With a nod to Ienzo and Terra, the whirlwind lancer spoke up.

"Good evening everyone," he began. "Thank you all for coming here tonight, and welcome to our first meeting of Xehanort Survivors Anonymous. Since the goal of this group is for people who have been personally affected by Xehanort's machinations to talk about their problems and move on from the trauma they endured, I think it's only fair that the ones who've dealt with the trauma the longest should go first." All eyes immediately turned to the oldest generation of Keyblade wielders in the room. In turn, Terra, Aqua, and Vanitas looked at Ven encouragingly. Or Terra and Aqua did, at least. Vanitas only gave his light half a raised eyebrow and a look that said "you might as well get it over with."

"Hi," Ven began after taking a deep breath. "For the handful of people here who don't know me or don't remember, my name is Ventus, and I survived Xehanort. I was ten years old when I first met the old man. I was caught outside in a storm, and the waves were so big I was almost swept out to sea. He saved me from the storm, but then he took me to his hideout, and refused to let me go back to my parents. He trained me in wielding a Keyblade, but whenever I tried to go home to my parents he wouldn't let me get off whatever world we were on."

"He put me through impossible training exercises, hoping to make me give into my inner darkness," the teen went on, voice shaking. "He wanted to use me as a vessel to replace his aging body. When he realized that wouldn't work, he split my heart in two." Everyone clenched their hands into fists in anger at how low Xehanort was willing to go. "He brought me home to die, and it was only thanks to my little brother that I survived that night. But when I woke up, all of my memories were gone. I couldn't remember anything except my name."

His voice finally broke as tears began rolling down his face. Aqua and Terra quickly enveloped their young friend in a supporting hug while everyone else in the group bar Vanitas (who was responsible for a lot of what happened after the memory erasure), offered words of comfort and sympathy. Ienzo told Ventus that he didn't have to share everything right then and there if he didn't want to, but Ven insisted on telling the full story. The collective blood of the former founders of the Organization boiled as Ven described the madman's machinations to make him and Vanitas fuse to create the X–Blade. Roxas and Xion quickly came over and gave Ven a hug when he told everyone about being in a coma for the last thirteen years. They'd been able to interact with the inside of Sora's mind at least. Ven never had that luxury.

Ven was sobbing inconsolably by the time he finished his story. Everyone in the room sympathized with him, and quickly began offering suggestions for coping mechanisms. After a few minutes, he finally calmed down and admitted that while he'd been to Disney Town's Dream Festival before his coma, he'd always wanted to go with Terra and Aqua. The two older Keyblade wielders quickly agreed, wanting to cheer their surrogate little brother up however they could. Like everyone else in the room, he had a lot of trauma to deal with, but a quiet, surrogate-family outing was the first step on the road to healing. As Namine passed Ven a box of tissues (which Ienzo had purchased in bulk in anticipation of nearly everyone being driven to tears telling their stories), the group moved down to the person with the second oldest meeting with Xehanort.

Vanitas kept up his aloof act as he recounted the four brutal years he'd spent living with Xehanort. The physical and emotional abuse. Being forced to prostitute himself for food. Beneath his cocky exterior though, he was just as emotional as Ventus was. He was just better at masking it. Unfortunately, (in his mind at least) Riku saw through the sarcastic veneer, and told him that he didn't have to be in denial about how traumatizing growing up with Xehanort had been.

Next was Terra, who recounted being manipulated by Xehanort into helping to kill his father figure before being possessed by the old man. Aqua described her nightmarish experiences in the Realm of Darkness and her feelings of failure. Ienzo spoke of how Xehanort had talked him into convincing Ansem to build the basement laboratory where they conducted their inhumane experiments. Even elaborated on how the madman had used the older man's scientific curiosity to easily manipulate him into committing crimes against humanity in the name of resarch. Dilan talked about the guilt the former founders felt at following Xehanort blindly.

Several boxes of tissues had been used up by the time it was Aeleus' turn. The former Number 5 explained how even when he was a Nobody, he had tried to perform small acts of kindness whenever he could in his spare time after his missions in the Organization.

"But in spite of my good deeds," he commented, "I still hated myself for what I'd done, in as much as I could hate at the time. I felt as if the things we did in Radiant Garden had left an empty void in my heart that could never be filled, no matter what I tried to do to atone for it." Even though as a Nobody the man had tried to kill him, Riku empathized with the guy on that count. He felt the same way after what he'd done at first, and even though he'd forgiven himself and moved on from it, there were times when the guilt still lingered.

After Aeleus came Lea, who, while putting on a similarly sarcastic attitude to Vanitas, admitted that he wasn't as bothered by everything as everyone else was.

"Sure, I still have flashbacks to both of my "deaths"," he admitted. "But the way I've always seen it is that I'm alive right now, so I shouldn't let the past bother me." Despite this, he still admitted feeling guilty about the things he'd done as part of the Organization. The lies, the killing, keeping secrets from Roxas and Xion that they deserved to know in the name of keeping them safe. As she sat silently in the back, Namine was beginning to think that nobody had escaped Xehanort's influence completely unscathed emotionally.

After Lea finished, he gently encouraged Namine to talk about the things that bothered her. She tried to protest that her problems weren't caused by Xehanort, but Riku and Aqua both insisted that this was still the best place to talk about her problems. Relenting, she told everyone about how Marluxia, Larxene, and DiZ had treated her. About the self-esteem shredding verbal abuse from DiZ, and the constant threat of sexual abuse (or just plain old physical in Larxene's case) Marluxia and Larxene used to keep her in line. Everyone was quick to reassure Kairi's Nobody that none of what she endured was her fault, and offer her all the comfort they could.

After Namine came Roxas and Xion, who admitted that while they were happy to be alive again, they kept having nightmares about what would happen if things had gone differently. They looked at each other and blushed profusely when Lea told everyone that the two of them had taken to sleeping together in each other's beds for comfort. Their blushing intensified when everyone gave them raised eyebrows and they quickly explained that it wasn't like  _that._ Lea and Olette had given each of them "the Talk" after discovering the duo in Roxas' bed together after that first morning, and neither of them was ready to go that far when they weren't even ready to admit their feelings for each other yet.

Once everyone else had gone, Riku, who had insisted on speaking last, finally shared his story. Like Terra, he'd been possessed by Xehanort for a time, although nowhere near as long as the older Key bearer had. But he'd been able to break free of the tyrant's control and spent the next year fighting to keep the remnant of Xehanort's Heartless inside his heart in check. But even though he'd managed to break free, he'd still considered himself unworthy of redemption.

"I thought that because I'd slipped into darkness that I had failed," he said. "That no matter what I did nobody would forgive me for what I'd done. But in the last two years, I've moved past all that. The fact that Sora's dad is a psychiatrist definitely helped. So did passing my Mark of Mastery exam and earning the title of Keyblade Master. I think that was the moment when I finally put everything that had happened behind me and started moving on with my life."

Everyone applauded when the eighteen-year-old finished, and everyone went back to offering each other advice on coping mechanisms for the next hour before the meeting adjourned. As the group went their separate ways, they all agreed to come back next week. Since Riku was the most well-adjusted out of everyone there, he didn't really need to come, but he promised to show up anyway to support everyone.

So everyone went their separate ways. Terra, Aqua, and Ven returned to the Land of Departure. Lea, Roxas, Xion, and Namine went back to Twilight Town. Riku headed back to Destiny Islands. And Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Ienzo made their way back up to Ansem's castle. The support group was a complete success. Everyone who had come to the meeting went home feeling a lot better about the trauma they'd endured than they did before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Namine's bit about Marluxia threatening her with sexual abuse was based on some comments I read on Chain of Memories' TVTropes page, which pointed out that Namine's situation in the game had a lot of unsettling implications, so for her backstory I took that line of reasoning and ran with it to its logical conclusion.


	23. Career Paths

#### Radiant Garden – Crystal Fissure

#### August 23, 2015

"I never realized changing forms was this painful without Donald's magic," Sora groaned when he and Kairi emerged from the Corridor of Darkness into the old fissure in the canyons outside the walls of Radiant Garden. They'd just come from the Pride Lands, and going from a quadrupedal form back to bipedal was a lot more physically exhausting than the other way around. Though Donald had usually been the one to handle changing everyone's forms when they went to a world that required them, some worlds caused visitors' forms to change without any magical assistance whatsoever. All Donald's magic really did was lock in what your appearance would be and make the transition painless.

As the young couple leaned back against the wall of the tunnel to catch their breath, Kairi thought back to how much fun they'd had in the Pride Lands. Walking on all fours had taken some getting used to, and the lack of clothing was a bit uncomfortable at first. But with a little help from Sora she quickly adapted and they'd spent the last few days racing around the savannah. Now that they were back in their natural forms, though, she had to admit that she was glad to be wearing clothes again.

When the pain of transforming back to human form finally passed, Sora helped her up and together they walked up the trail towards the city gates to see how things had been going while they were off exploring. Although not without her and Sora having one extra kiss before they left the cave. As they walked along, Sora felt satisfied with how far he'd come in the last few weeks. Through trial and error he'd managed to get a handle on his new dark powers. He'd have to ask Riku and Vantias to teach him some more complex uses for his powers, but he'd managed to master Dark Fire and a few other Darkness-based spells, as well as opening Dark Corridors.

While they walked, they reminisced over all the places they'd been on their little vacation. Besides Neverland and the Pride Lands, they'd been to Halloween Town, Atlantica (for the second time), The Jungle, Sherwood Forest, and Agrabah. After all the stress of fighting Xehanort, it was good to see the worlds without having to worry about anything except having a good time. But as they approached the gates of Radiant Garden, a saddened look appeared on Kairi's face.

"Kairi, what's wrong?" Sora asked, concerned for his girlfriend.

"Sorry," she replied. "It's just… seeing the castle again just reminds me that I'm going to be a queen someday. I know my uncle will make sure I'm prepared… but I don't want to just throw myself into princess training right after we graduate high school. There are so many worlds to explore and I'm sure I'm ready to settle down yet." Sora quickly pulled her in for a comforting hug.

"It's okay, Kairi," he reassured her. "I get it. I'm worried about the future too. I've been fighting the forces of evil for so long I don't even know what kind of job I want to have after we finish school. I want to settle down eventually, but not for a few years at least." This managed to put Kairi's mind at ease for a little while longer, and the conversation topic switched to what Sora could pursue as a career. Because of how much he loved seeing the universe Kairi suggested he could start up a travel agency for the worlds.

Sora laughed as they walked through the gates into the city's Central Square. What used to be the wreckage of the Bailey was now a hive of activity. While they wandered through town to visit Leon in the gang in the Borough, he admitted that when Kairi moved to Radiant Garden and start her training to prepare to become queen, he planned to enlist in the royal guard so that they could still be together. Kairi blushed when he said that.

"You'd certainly look handsome in that uniform," she commented slyly. This time Sora was the one blushing as they exited the tunnels running through the walls of the town. As they walked down the stairs towards Merlin's house, Sora couldn't help but marvel at how much things had changed, not just here in Radiant Garden, but in his relationship with Kairi as well. Three years ago, he was too shy to even admit he liked the Princess of Heart as more than a friend. And now here they were, spending the last month of their summer vacation traveling around the worlds on their own private dating cruise.

As they entered the main courtyard of the Borough where Merlin's house was located, they found Ienzo and Ansem walking into the open area from the end leading to the Marketplace, each holding a bar of Sea-Salt ice cream in his hand. After exchanging greetings, Ansem expressed his happiness that the two teens finally admitted their feelings for each other. Although the two scientists jokingly warned Sora that if he broke Kairi's heart they'd invent creatively horrific ways to punish him.

All four knew that Kairi's relatives were only kidding however. Everyone knew how much Sora cared about her, and word had spread after the battle at the Keyblade Graveyard of how far he was willing to go to protect her. As the laughter died down, Kairi told her uncle about her post-high school plans. Ansem completely understood her desire to wait before she started preparing for her ascension to the throne, and nodded in approval when Sora expressed his plan to join the royal guard when they were finally ready to settle down. Before they went their separate ways, Ansem reminded his niece that if she ever needed a place to stay or a shoulder to lean on, she still had a home here in Radiant Garden.


	24. Million Dreams Award

#### Disney Town – Main Plaza

#### August 24, 2015

The roar of engines echoed across Disney Town as the Rumble Racing competition got under way. The annual Dream Festival had begun. With travel between the worlds more common now, this year promised to be the biggest turnout for the celebration yet. Crowds of visitors from almost every world in the Daybreak Coalition crammed into the stands around the racetrack as the first of the day's many events was about to begin.

In contrast to previous years, where the roster consisted entirely of Disney Town residents, the racers entered in this year's circuit consisted of a wide variety of contestants from throughout the known worlds. From up in the stands, Kairi cheered while trying not to spill her soda in Riku's lap next to her With the shrill scream of a starting whistle, Sora, Terra, Zed, Vanellope Von Schweetz, Goofy's son Max, and a tall, skinny rodent named Mortimer, who – if the booing of the crowd was any indication – was extremely unpopular here in Disney Town, took off like rockets along the racetrack.

After a long and competitive race, Zed emerged victorious. With the cart-racing tournament concluded, the crowds moved over to the Fruit Ball court. There were eight teams in the bracket: Sora and Riku, Max and PJ, Roxas and Lea, Kairi and Xion, Mara and Paige, Minnie and Diasy, Namine and Vanitas, and finally Terra and Aqua. The tournament went on for hours. With each round, the pool of competitors was cut in half. Until finally, the final round arrived. The match of Sora and Riku against Max and PJ would decide who would win the grand prize.

The competition was fierce. Both pairs worked in perfect concert, launching cartoonishly oversized fruits back and forth across the large field where the games were held. With teamwork honed from the past two years of combat, Riku and Sora soon emerged victorious. After everyone offered the two Keyblade Masters their congratulations, Terra, Aqua, and Ven headed over to the main plaza to grab some more ice cream.

"It's nice to come here when we don't have to worry about anything crazy happening out in the worlds," Terra commented as he and Aqua walked arm in arm through the streets of Disney Town with Ven a few feet ahead of them.

"Definetaly," Ven called back. "I feel a lot better now that we're actually doing something normal for once instead of fighting all the time." Aqua smiled at Ven's statement. She and Terra were both glad that their little brother (although they weren't related biologically, he was still their family) had cheered up since the support group meeting. His positive attitude had returned, and while they all still had issues from their manipulation by Xehanort, they were all healing. A little while later, the crowds gathered around the stage set up in the Main Plaza for the main attraction of the festival. The Million Dreams Award.

Everyone present, local and visitor alike, had voted and been voted for. Mickey and Minnie had been away from the party for the last two hours counting out the votes. Now throngs of people crammed into the small plaza outside the castle gates as the king and queen prepared to announce the winner.

"Who do you think will win?" Sora asked as he, Riku, and Kairi stood under the gazebo in the center of the plaza. It was the only place not filled to the brim with people, and while they waited, the three teens leaned against the railing and watched the sunset.

"I'd say either Max, Namine, or Xion," Riku commented. All three had been immensely popular with the crowds after the Fruit Ball game earlier that afternoon.

"I still want Kairi to win," Sora replied. "They really loved you out there today."

"You were pretty popular with the crowds yourself," the princess of Radiant Garden retorted teasingly. "You, Riku, Terra, Aqua, and Ven are probably the only people everyone here knows personally." After all three of them went on to jokingly discuss their own heroics while reminding each other of how far they'd all come. Eventually, Mickey and Minnie emerged from the stage as the crowds cheered enthusiastically.

"Hello everyone," Mickey called out to the audience. The cheering intensified, especially from the citizens of Disney Town, who were glad to have their king home to host the festivities.

"And thank you for waiting," Minnie added. "After counting all the votes and recounting them to make sure we didn't miss any, we're proud to announce that for the first time in thirteen years, we have a three-way tie for the winner of the Million Dreams Award!" The cheering broke out again as the crowds clamored for the monarchs to announce the winners.

"So without further ado," Mickey began before pausing dramatically. "Please give a round of applause for Sora, Riku, and Kairi!" The screams of the crowd were nearly deafening as the three friends just stood there in shock for a moment. They couldn't believe their ears. The three of them tied? Kairi burst out laughing, snapping Sora and Riku out of their stupors. Kairi smiled as she dragged her boyfriend to the stage while Riku followed behind them. When they got up on stage and shook hands with the king and queen (although the crowd went "aww…" when Mickey skipped the handshake and gave his friend Riku a congratulatory hug) before receiving the prizes that came with the award.

As they stared out at the cheering audience through the snowfall of confetti, Sora smiled happily as he realized how many people had voted enough for him, his girlfriend, and his best friend to tie. By the time they finally walked off the stage, their ears were ringing long after the cheering of the crowd died down. It felt good to be so well liked among the worlds. It felt good realizing just how many friends they all had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first wrote this fic, I wanted to include the award presentation scene as a bit of a reflection/expansion on the one in Birth By Sleep. Anyway, from here to the end of this fic, it's mainly fluff one-shots.


	25. A Match Not Made In Heaven

#### Interstellar Prison – Auditorium

#### August 25, 2015

Maleficent's skin was a darker shade of green than usual as she walked up the aisle of the prison's small auditorium towards the makeshift altar erected on the stage. The whiteness of her wedding dress didn't suit her personality. But once the ceremony and reception were concluded, she planned on changing back to her usual black robes as soon as possible. Up ahead, Hades stood, wearing a stylish tuxedo as he waited for her at the altar. In most weddings, the father of the bride was supposed to be the one walking her down the aisle, but since Maleficent's father had been dead for years, the Red Skull volunteered to fill the role in his stead.

The ceremony itself was practical and brief. Between their current living situation and the state of their collective finances, the Hellfire Club couldn't afford ostentatious decorations for its leader's wedding. Nevertheless, Maleficent's inner circle at least put some effort into making her and Hades' big day a festive one. As they exchanged vows, Maleficent couldn't help but feel at peace for the first time in decades. Her next attempt at conquest could fail for all she cared. She had a loving husband and a baby on the way. While her ambition to conquer remained, along with her recognizable viciousness, as long as she had Hades and their child she could accept any failure.

When Yzma (whose status as an empress – even a former one – qualified her to officiate the ceremony) told them to "hurry up and kiss already," the assembled members of the Hellfire Club cheered. Hades leaded forward and gave his new queen of the underworld the biggest kiss on the lips he could manage. As the party drifted into the nearby conference room for the reception. Which really ended up being just dinner that was moderately more fancy than usual. As the upper echelons of the club ranks ate, they all came up to where the newlyweds were seated at the head of the table and offered their congratulations.

When the reception finally ended, Mistress of All Evil and Lord of the Underworld went upstairs to their chambers together. Maleficent felt a rare moment of happiness as she rested her head against her new husband's chest later that night. After what had happened to her last marriage, her life had finally turned around. Now all she had to do was conquer the galaxy and she could die happy. The happiness she was feeling now would only be eclipsed the following morning when she found out what Cruella and Hook had gotten up to during the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this chapter is more about Maleficent's thoughts about her life, her trademark viciousness and ambition isn't as evident today. She's still the same villain we all know and love, I just like showing her thoughts on everything beneath her mask, particularly the backstory I came up with for her. The Cruella and Hook bit at the end is a reference to a piece of fan-art (based on some source at Disney) depicting Dr. Facillier from The Princess and the Frog as the love-child of Captain Hook & Cruella De Vil. I thought the implication of those two getting together would be rather funny.


	26. Homecoming

#### Destiny Islands – Pier

#### August 26, 2015

Sora smiled as he pulled Kairi up onto the dock on the shores of the main island. They'd gone back and picked up their raft to sail home. They'd dragged it up onto the shores of the smaller island and paddled home in the boats they'd left moored there when they left. It had been a great vacation, but with school starting in less than a week, it was time to head home and start getting ready for their senior year. It was funny to think that after all they'd been through in the fight against Xehanort something as normal as school seemed so alien to them.

As they finished tying up their boats, they prepared to walk back home. Or they would have, if they hadn't gotten distracted making out like the lovesick teenagers they were. Only the arrival of Tidus and Wakka, who were heading back out to the small island for an evening of blitzball practice, made them break apart, blushing fiercely. The moment ruined, they settled for a romantic stroll through town as Sora walked Kairi home. The two lovers reminisced over the things that had happened on their tour of the worlds, both romantic and comedic. After dropping Kairi off at her house, Sora walked back to his own. He was looking forward to telling his parents about all the cool things they'd done on their trip.

"Mom, Dad, I'm home!" he called out as he opened the front door with his key. His parents called out for him to join them in the kitchen. When he walked in, he found his mom cooking dinner while his dad set the table. To his surprise and confusion, his father was setting out plates and silver wear for four people instead of only three.  _What's going on?_ He wondered in his head before asking his parents if they were having company over.

"Remember what we told you about your older brother?" his mom began after she sat the whole family down at the table for the discussion. "he was lost at sea during a storm?"

"Yeah…" he replied hesitantly, starting to put the pieces together in his mind.  _My brother's alive,_ he thought to himself in shock. "I take it he ended up on another world after that storm we all thought he died in, and he's finally made it back home?" He'd always wondered what his life would have been like if his older brother was still alive. Now it seemed like he'd finally get to find out.

"Yes," Emi confirmed happily. "When you called to let us know you and Kairi were coming home we decided to finally have a family dinner with the four of us." A knock at the door brought everything back into focus. Eager to meet his brother for the first time, Sora raced to the front of the house before his parents could tell them that he'd already met his older sibling. He was surprised and confused when he opened the door to find Ventus standing on the porch.

"Oh, hey Ven," he greeted, confused as to what the younger (physically at least) Keyblade wielder was doing here. "What's up?"

"Did mom and dad not tell you yet?" the blonde haired boy asked with a chuckle.

"Wait… what!?" Sora spluttered as he struggled to process what the other boy had said.  _Why did he…_ he wondered mentally.  _Of course!_ He realized  _everything makes sense now. Ven told me how he couldn't remember anything about his past after Xehanort created Vanitas, and that was the year I was born. A year after my brother was lost at sea. Xehanort must have rescued him from the storm only to force him into being his apprentice. And he never came back because after Xehanort split his heart he couldn't remember where he came from. Ven is my brother…_

Though his thoughts were racing through his mind a mile a minute, he was aware enough to see Ventus nodding to confirm the unanswered question. Without a word, Sora reached forward and hugged his long-lost brother, welcoming him home. Though he'd already known Ventus for a while now, finding out that he'd been sharing his body with the heart of his long-lost older brother made him cry tears of joy. He'd just been reunited with the brother he thought he'd never get to meet and he couldn't restrain himself with how happy he was. After drying his eyes, Sora led Ven inside, where their parents greeted their oldest son with a warm welcome-home hug.

As the reunited family sat down for dinner, Sora realized how much things were going to change around the house. While Ven explained that he was still living at the Land of Departure, there were some things that both brothers were going to have to get used to. For the last several weeks they'd seen each other as friends, and now they needed to adjust to being brothers. It shouldn't be too difficult, since they got along so well anyway.

"So did you tell them about you know who?" Sora asked after taking a sip of his beverage. Sure Vanitas had proved that he'd apparently turned over a new leaf, but he wasn't sure how his parents would react to the fact that their oldest son had a clone. They were fine with Roxas (he hadn't really figured out how to explain Xion yet), but he was a little concerned that they might reject Vanitas because of his whole "pure darkness" thing. Ven quickly caught on to what he was thinking and answered the question.

"Yeah, I told them about Vanitas," he replied. Their parents quickly added that as far as they were concerned, Vanitas was always welcome there. "He just hasn't really come around," he explained. "He keeps saying he's busy at work with Coalition Intelligence, but I think he's just not really comfortable with people being so nice to him yet. He did say he'd try and come for dinner tonight though." And a few minutes later, there was another knock at the door, and Ven opened it to find Vanitas standing nervously on the front porch.

With the addition of Vanitas, the conversation expanded to the dark teen's work at the C.I.N. Sora and Ventus were both concerned that Maleficent's cabal was still at large, but their parents told them to stop worrying for now and enjoy the peace while it lasted. Vanitas looked a little uncomfortable answering so many questions from Sora and Ven's parents, and Sora couldn't help but wonder if that was how Roxas had felt before the simulated Twilight Town when his heart had really started to grow.

When everyone finished the meal, Sora and Emi went inside to do the dishes while Taro, Ventus, and Vanitas cleared the table. When Ven's father offered for the dark Key bearer to spend the night, Vanitas nervously attempted to decline, only for his light half to insist he stay.

"Sleep overs are one of the most integral parts of being a kid that you never got to do with Xehanort," Ven said. "So you might as well check this off the to-do list of things you never got to do living with Xehanort now." Vanitas reluctantly agreed, and a few hours later, Ven's dark side found himself sitting on the couch in the living room in a pair of Sora's old pajamas that had been found under his bed a few days ago.

He would have preferred to just sit quietly and meditate in the corner or something, but Sora and Ventus had roped him into a monster movie marathon, complete with soda and popcorn to keep them awake all night. But underneath his sarcasm and running commentary of the movie, he was enjoying himself. He never got to do anything so casual with Xehanort. Life with the old man was a constant cycle of 8 hours of training, sleep with random strangers at the nearest brothel in order to obtain a decent meal, come back to the Keyblade Graveyard, find something to keep himself busy for the rest of the day, sleep for ten hours, and repeat. And so the pure dark Key bearer went to sleep that night with a secret smile on his face, and a tiny flicker of light in his coal black heart.


	27. Round My Family Tree

#### Destiny Islands – Sora's House

#### August 27, 2015

Sora smiled as he climbed out of his sleeping bag the following morning. He'd had a blast spending time with his older brother last night. Speaking of, Sora looked over and saw that Ven was still asleep and Vanitas' sleeping bag was rolled up, its former occupant evidently long gone. Since everyone left in the house was still snoozing soundly, Sora got up and quietly crept towards the back door. Since coming home from his fight with Xemnas a two years ago, he'd gotten into the habit of getting up relatively early in the morning and going out on the back porch to watch the sunrise. To the Keyblade master, the rising sun piercing the dark of the night reminded him of the Door to Light opening to bring him and Riku home from the Realm of Darkness.

As he stepped outside, he was surprised and confused when he bumped into something that felt like another person's back as he tiptoed across the patio.

"Sorry," he heard a voice that sounded exactly like a younger version of his own said as the form in front of him shifted and Vanitas stood up from where he was sitting on the deck. "I didn't mean to get in the way."

"Don't be," Sora whispered. "I thought you'd already left. So what are you doing out here anyway?"

"Meditating," Vanitas answered quietly as the two identical Key bearers leaned against the porch railing. "It helps me think when I don't have anything better to do. What about you?"

"I like coming out to watch the sunrise every morning," the older of the two look-alikes replied. "How come you meditate so much? I know it helps you think, but last night Ven mentioned that you do it almost all the time. Your life doesn't sound so dull that meditation is the best thing you can come up with to keep busy." Vanitas took a deep breath before responding.

"I just haven't really gotten used to actually having a life yet," he replied. "Living with Xehanort made me feel less like a human and more like an attack dog being trained by repeating the same routine on a daily basis until it was ingrained in my head that this was what I need to do. The old man was a master manipulator. Breaking people is… was his specialty. For someone like me who didn't know any other way of life, all he had to do was have me repeating the same routines for so long that when he told me to do something I'd done before, I was  _happy_ to do it."

"He didn't just put me through all that "training" so I'd know what to do in a situation," he went on. "He'd conditioned me to want it. To enjoy doing it. But even though I'd been conditioned to instinctively want to train for hours or have sex with strangers for food, I could sense a basic idea of what Ventus was feeling all the time and there was always a knot in the pit of my stomach constantly reminding me that there was more to life than what Xehanort had conditioned me to enjoy."

"And I hated myself through all of it. So I started meditating to take my mind off everything I'd been conditioned into doing and actually get to do what I  _really_ wanted. Underneath all the training and manipulation, all I wanted was to have one friend who accepted me for what I was. After spending so long trapped in a cycle of creating and killing Unversed, I just didn't want to be alone. But now that the old man's finally gone, the conditioning still has a hold over me. So there's my big tragic sob story. Are you happy now?"

Vanitas was sweating profusely when he finished his rant, and tears streamed down his face as he panted heavily. He wasn't really felt comfortable sharing his feelings and all that sappy garbage, but something about Sora (either the fact that they shared the same face or the fact that the guy had a habit of nonchalantly bonding with just about everyone he met) made the dark teenager feel less guarded. The Keyblade Master in question quickly turned and pulled his brother's formerly-evil twin in for a hug. Vanitas clearly needed it.

After a few minutes of comforting his dark-haired doppelganger, Sora tried to cheer Vanitas up by talking about things he wanted to try now that he was free from Xehanort. Vanitas was a little reluctant to talk at first, but eventually, the two boys ended up bonding over shared dark powers as Vanitas offered to teach Sora some more advanced ways of using his darkness both in and out of battle. Ven was awake when the two near-identical teens snuck back inside to change and grab some water bottles and towels, and insisted on coming along.

"I haven't had a chance to spar in weeks," he said. "I gotta stay in shape." So the three teenagers headed back outside and walked along the cobblestone streets of town towards the beach. When they arrived on the shore, they laid their towels and water bottles on the grass at the edge of the sand. Sora and Vanitas were up the first round while Ventus unfolded the beach chair he'd brought for whoever would be sitting out each round.

For the next few minutes, Sora and Vanitas swung their Keyblades back and forth across the sand. As both warriors called on their darkness-based abilities, Vanitas called out suggestions and advice to Sora for him to improve his technique. Sora was a fast learner, but Vanitas had more experience using darkness in a fight, and emerged as the victor. Since Sora lost, he walked over to the beach chair and Ventus got up to take his turn. Despite the fact that the last time they dueled they'd trying to kill each other, the two twins managed to get through their entire duel without having flashbacks to what had happened that fateful day.

After an hour and a half of sparring, the three Key bearers decided that they were all ready to head back and eat breakfast. Sora passed everyone their towel and water bottle as they walked back to the house. On the way back, they all provided commentary on their multiple matches, jokingly teasing each other over their various losses like they'd been doing this for years. They got back to Sora and Ven's house to find their mother making them pancakes for breakfast. Vanitas went upstairs to shower first while Sora and Ven sat on the back porch while they waited for breakfast to be ready.

"Vanitas was a lot less moddy this morning," Ventus observed as they sat outside in the morning sun. "I assume you had something to do with that?"

"A little," Sora admitted. "I accidentally bumped into him while he was meditating when I came outside to watch the sunrise, and I asked him why he spent so much time meditating."

"Let me guess," Ven interrupted before his younger brother could continue. "it has something to do with Xehanort."

"Yeah," Sora replied. "But you should ask him what it was. It's his story to tell. I guess he didn't just get his face from me. It looks like he got my habit of bottling up my pain and anger too. He really needs to learn how to loosen up a bit and not try and hold all his frustration and trauma inside."

"I've been trying to tell him that for weeks," Ven countered. "But I could never get through to him. How did you get him to open up to you like that?"

"Beats me," Sora answered with a shrug. "It's probably has something to do with either the fact that we have the same face, or how I get people to trust me so easily. I really don't know." Their conversation was interrupted when a newly clean Vanitas poked his head out the back door and informed the two brothers that he was done in the shower. Sora went next, leaving Ven and Vanitas to sit outside and talk. Breakfast was ready, but the three boys agreed to wait until they had all cleaned up before eating.

When he came outside to tell Ven it was his turn, he found his brother (it was weird thinking of Ventus as the older sibling even though he was born first because of the fact that he was physically younger than Sora, and everyone agreed to just not think about it to avoid giving themselves migranes) offering to teach his dark doppelganger how to surf. Sora smiled as he heard Vanitas sounding a little less guarded, and he burst out laughing when, after he'd told Ven it was his turn to shower, Vanitas told him to hurry up so they could eat.

A few minutes later, the three boys sat around the kitchen table eating chocolate chip pancakes with an enormous amount of syrup on top. As they ate their breakfast, Emi and Taro watched silently from the dining room and discretely took photos of the heartwarming sight. Ven and Sora adjusted to the revelation that they were siblings extremely well, and were getting along like a house on fire. Vanitas needed a little more time to adjust to being part of a family, but Emi suspected that their oldest son's embodied dark side would be showing up at family gatherings over the holidays from now on. Even though Sora was still the only one living at home (at least until he graduated high school), the two parents were thrilled with how much larger their family had grown in the last month.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I wrote this fic a few years ago, I figured it would be great for Sora and Vanitas to actually have a face to face conversation in this fic, since I didn't really show them talking in The Xehanort War, and I figured all three guys bonding this chapter would be really heartwarming and emotional. Vanitas is pretty much officially part of the family, even if he won't admit it out loud.
> 
> The reason they don't really talk about Roxas being part of the family is mainly because in my mind Roxas would want to distance himself from Sora's life (they're still going to be friends with each other) because he's been told for his whole time in the simulated Twilight Town that he had no right to exist as anything other than a copy of Sora, and now that he's alive again it made sense to me that he'd want to forge his own life and be separate from his original self.


	28. Shop 'Till You Drop

#### Destin Islands – Market Plaza:

#### August 28, 2015

"I've gotta admit," Sora remarked as he, Riku, and Kairi walked through Destiny Island's market plaza towards the stores where they could find all their school supplies, "I did not miss school when we were all out flying around the worlds."

"Definitely," Riku commented. "It was hard enough getting back into that routine when we came home from fighting Xemnas, but after all fighting against the Organization over the summer it's going to be a nightmare going back to the dull monotony of school after all that excitement."

"I don't know," Kairi added. "It won't be all dull this time." She shot Sora a playful smirk as they walked arm in arm into the store. She was of course referring to the fact that the two of them had most of their classes together. Sora blushed before smirking back. Riku rolled his eyes at the couple's antics before pulling out the supply list for their upcoming school year. Breaking up the two lovebirds long enough to figure out who was going to grab what, Riku set off towards the office supply section to pick up paper, notebooks, and notecards.

Meanwhile, Sora and Kairi split up to tackle the remaining school supplies. Or they were supposed to at least. Riku half expected to find them making out in one of the fitting rooms in the clothing section. But to his surprise, the younger teens actually got everything done. Especially considering how crowded it was. A lot of people waited and bought their school supplies the last week before school started, and this year was no exception. But they nevertheless got their shopping done surprisingly quickly. As the trio walked back to his house to organize and divide up the supplies, Riku couldn't help but think of how much things had changed.

A year ago he'd been insecure of his worthiness to wield his Keyblade despite his acceptance of darkness. Now he was a Keyblade Master, hailed as a hero all over the known worlds. He used to be a bit of loner, but now he had friends all over the place. In the last few weeks, he'd been going around visiting all the friends he'd made in the last month. He kept in touch with Namine too. He'd done his best to keep her spirits up in the face of Ansem's verbal abuse (which he'd apologized profusely for) while she was fixing Sora's memories, and they'd bonded over their feelings of regret while his friend was asleep.

When they got back to his house, they quickly swapped school supplies so that each of them had everything they needed, then spent the rest of the afternoon on the small island messing around like they used to and sharing stories of all the crazy things they'd done while they were out traveling the worlds. Riku laughed at all the messes Sora had gotten into, and congratulated Kairi on being princess of Radiant Garden.

When their adventures had first began, Riku had something of a crush on Kairi. He'd always been jealous of the fact that she spent more time with Sora than with him when they weren't doing group activities, but when he stopped by the small island while Sora was asleep and saw the additions the two of them had made to their cave drawings, he realized that Sora and Kairi were meant for each other. So Riku decided to stop pining over Kairi when he knew she would choose Sora, and let the two figure things out on their own. He'd caused enough conflict between their little trio already and didn't want to exacerbate it by making Sora jealous of him.

He was happy for the two of them, and he'd since moved on from his shallow crush. He and Kairi were still friends, but he wasn't interested in her romantically anymore. He put aside his reflections on the past as Sora challenged him to another one of their old wooden sword duels for old time's sake. Riku smiled as he and Sora charged at each other from across the beach. The two Keyblade Masters were like brothers to each other, and while they both got along, they still enjoyed some friendly competition every once in a while.


	29. Songs of Ice and Fire

#### Arendelle – Throne Room

#### August 29, 2015

Elsa sighed as she walked out into the corridor off the throne room to stretch her legs. While Arendelle's induction into the Daybreak Coalition had gone smoothly, she had a long line of petitioners here to see her today. After sitting on the uncomfortable throne for two hours, she needed a breath of fresh air before she could go any further. She took a few calming breaths to melt the layer of frost that trailed behind her.

With help from Anna and the occasional visit from Lea, her control over her powers had improved considerably in the last month and a half. Where she once hid her hands behind her gloves in fear of accidentally freezing someone, now she could keep her magic in check with ease. She closed her eyes as she leaned out the open window and breathed in the calming sea air. But when she opened her eyes, she found she'd accidentally coated the windowsill with a layer of ice.

"You've really come a long way," a familiar voice called out. Elsa jumped back in surprise and turned to find Lea leaning against the wall further down the hallway.

"Thanks," the queen of Arendelle replied, blushing lightly as she did so. She may have only known the man for a little over a month, but since he'd started visiting more often, she'd come to develop a crush on him. Not that she was ready to admit that to anyone other than herself, of course. "How are things going in Twilight Town?"

"I finally managed to get myself a job," the Flurry of Dancing Flames answered proudly. While there was enough dough left over from what they'd recovered from the Organization's Munny vault, the house he, Roxas, Xion, and Namine lived in had to be paid off somehow. That Munny couldn't last forever, so he'd set out to find himself a job so that they wouldn't run out of money.

"Congratulations!" Elsa said. "So what's your new job then?" Lea blushed before finally answering.

"I'm a model at Twilight Town's big clothing outlet," he tried to say as quickly and quietly as he could, hoping she wouldn't hear him. Unfortunately (for him at least), she did.

"Seriously?" she gasped out between bursts of laughter. "No offense, but I figured you'd wind up working at a pizza restaurant or something with your fire powers." She kept laughing to hide her blushing at having pictured Lea shirtless when he'd said he was a model.

"Eh," Lea replied noncommittally. "It was the only place that had a position open on world, and I wasn't ready to do inter-planetary commuting unless I was really desperate. Besides, it pays the bills and puts food on the table." As the queen's laughter died down, Lea asked Elsa how things were going for her.

Having learned from both Lea and experience that bottling her emotions up only made things worse, Elsa took the opportunity to vent her frustrations with how her day was going. Lea politely nodded and listened as she went on about how much pressure she was under with the day to day minutia of ruling a kingdom.

"You should ask your sister to help to take some of the pressure off," Lea suggested as they walked through the corridors of the palace. "That way you're not as stressed."

"But I'm queen," Elsa protested. "I can't just dump my responsibilities on someone else just because I need some time to myself."

"That doesn't mean you need to handle everything alone," Lea countered. "It's not selfish to need a break to unwind from the pressure every once in a while. That's what delegating's for. You're still in charge, but you can still lighten the load so you're not overworking yourself." Elsa sighed as she realized that her friend was right once again.

"Aren't I always?" he asked jokingly, to which he received a playful punch in the shoulder for his attempt as sarcastic humor. When the two of them finished laughing, he informed Elsa that he'd brought her a deep dish pizza from Twilight Town, and he practically had to chase after her as she bolted towards the dining room. Since Lea had first introduced her to the food when he'd dropped by to visit after Xehanort's fall, she'd taken a taste and almost immediately declared it to be her favorite food, and so Lea made sure to bring a fresh pie with him whenever he came to visit.

As they sat in the castle dining room chowing down on hot, fresh pizza, Lea couldn't keep his eyes off the queen of Arendelle. They'd been friends for a month and a half, but already he was beginning to realize that he just might like her as more than a friend. He wasn't ready to admit it to himself yet, on account of the fact that she was busy running a kingdom and right now barely had time for herself, let alone dipping her toes into the dating pool. Right now though, he just enjoyed spending time with a friend. He, Roxas, and Xion would always be his best friends (even if he was still the closest thing to a parental figure in their lives), but it was nice to spend time with people his own age for a change.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lea and Elsa aren't going to get together until a later fic. When I first wrote this chapter, I wanted to establish that while right now they're just friends, the attraction is still there.


	30. Champion For Real

#### Twilight Town – The Sandlot

#### August 30, 2015

"Ladies and gentleman," the portly man on the center of the stage announced. "Struggle fiends of Twilight Town and the rest of the Daybreak Coalition, it's time for this summer's most sizzling clash!" Fireworks went off above the Sandlot as the cheering of the crowd grew louder. "That's right!" the referee went on. "Today is the day for the Struggle and the Title Match! Who will be the one to break through the ranks and take on our defending champion, Setzer? And who will leave here today as our new Struggle champion!?" All around the makeshift platform, the cheering fans shouted out the names of their favorite contestants that they wanted to win this year's tournament.

In the alleyway leading from the Sandlot to Station Heights, the four contenders who fought their way through the preliminary matches earlier in the summer waited in the wings. Hayner, Roxas, Seifer, and Vivi stood anxiously as the announcer went on to announce their names to the already screaming crowd. When the announcer finished, Roxas and Hayner headed up to the ring for the first match.

The struggle preliminaries were held a few days after the former Nobodies had moved into their house on the terrace, and Roxas had practically sprinted out the door to sign up. He'd convinced Xion to give it a try as well, but she hadn't made it past the preliminaries. She still came to cheer him on though, and Roxas was glad she was there. As he and Hayner took their place on the stage, Roxas couldn't help but smile at how much his life had come full circle. Focusing back on the match, he dropped into a fighting stance seconds before the referee blew the whistle and the duel began.

Little red balls flew everywhere as Roxas landed the first strike against Hayner. The valcro padded armor Struggle combatants wore held the balls used to determine scores, and were specifically designed for the balls to detach from the padding with a single blow. Hayner put up a good fight, and Lea and Xion had given him some sword training to increase his skill, but Roxas had much more experience when it came to fighting with swords. After the sixty seconds of the match were up, the former Key of Destiny was declared the winner and moved on to the semifinals.

"I lost," Hayner moaned as Roxas helped him up from the floor of the arena. "I can't believe it. Guess all that time wielding a Keyblade taught you well."

"I had a lot of fun fighting you," Roxas said with a smile as they walked off the stage to make room for the next match.

"Yeah?" Hayner retorted. "Well I didn't, wise guy."

"Come on then," Roxas replied. "Let's find a way to cheer you up."

"Nah," Hayner said with a chuckle. "That's alright." They joined Xion, Lea, Namine, Pence, and Olette at one of the benches along the side of the stage to watch Seifer go up against Vivi. Roxas mentally breathed a sigh of relief that Vivi had the upper hand. Not that he wanted Seifer to win, but when he'd fought Vivi in the digital Twilight Town, it had been a Dusk in disguise, and that had led to a lot of confusion and pain for him. Given how his time in the simulation ended, Roxas was a little reluctant to fight Vivi again.

Seifer ended up winning his match, pitting him against Roxas in the finals. Roxas felt bad for wanted Vivi to lose. He liked the guy to be honest. Right now he was just afraid of having flashbacks to all the crazy stuff that had happened in the simulation. Roxas blushed when Xion gave him a quick kiss for luck before he walked up onto the stage to face Seifer. Roxas may have only been in the fake Twilight Town for a week, but from what he'd seen of Seifer's fighting style, the guy had proven to be disappointingly predictable in the preliminaries, and in the end, Roxas won the fight by a landslide.

Roxas blushed even more when Xion gave him a congratulatory hug. With only a few minutes to cool off before the title match against Setzer, Olette quickly raced over with a water bottle. As he took a sip of water to rehydrate before the final match, Hayner and the others all offered their congratulations as the referees cleaned the point balls off the ring and reattached them to the Velcro pads worn by the combatants worn in the final match. When everything was ready, Roxas and Setzer stepped into the arena.

"Hey, ruck-sack," Setzer said bluntly as they got into position on the stage. "How about you throw the match for me. Let me win and I'll make it worth your while." Roxas simply glared in response.

"Get real," he retorted before getting into a fighting stance. The announcer went on to announce a few more things, and then finally the whistle blew, and the championship match began. Roxas rolled out of the way to dodge Setzer's first strike before landing a few hits of his own. Setzer swung and managed to get in a few good hits before Roxas parried and countered, evening the score. Roxas grinned as his Struggle bat knocked five more balls off his opponent's armor. It was on.

When the final match ended a minute later, Roxas stood there in shock at the fact that he had won. He was champion of the Struggle tournament. For real this time. No simulations, no dreams. He was really the champion. The cheering of his friends snapped him back to reality. As he listened to the announcer drone on with the usual end of tournament speech, he smiled proudly as he lifted the championship belt above his head triumphantly. When the crowds of people congratulating him finally dispersed, he lead Xion, Lea, Namine, Hayner, Pence, and Olette down to the Tram Common to buy some ice cream so they could celebrate up on the Clock Tower.

After watching the sunset while they ate their ice cream, the group went back to the house the former Nobodies shared and ordered enough pizzas to last the night. As they waited for their dinner, Roxas took the little crystal balls off the tips of the trophy for this year's struggle tournament. Since Hayner, Pence, and Olette already had their own crystals (apparently Seifer had given his old trophy to Sora as a gesture of respect, and he'd given the crystals to them after accidentally dropping the trophy), Roxas gave the red crystal on his trophy to Lea, the yellow one to Namine, and the green one to Xion, while keeping the blue one to himself.

Although he and Xion still had flashbacks and kept coming into each other's rooms in the middle of the night, life had improved for both of them. As he ran his fingers through her hair as they laid in his bed later that night, he couldn't help but marvel once again at how far he'd come. A month ago, he had nothing. He was just a tiny voice in the back of Sora's subconscious incapable of interacting with the outside world. Now he had his own body, his own life, a place to call home, and more friends than he'd ever had before.  _I'm probably one of the luckiest guys in Twilight Town,_ he thought to himself as he drifted off to join Xion in slumber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seifer may be the Struggle Champion in the real Twilight Town in KH2, but when I wrote this fic I decided that he was dethroned by Setzer between KH2 and The Xehanort War. I wanted to have these Struggle scenes be similar to yet different from the ones in Kingdom Hearts 2 so I borrowed some of the dialogue to help emphasize that. I decided not to have both Xion and Roxas compete because:
> 
> 1) Xion's personality in the games doesn't seem like she'd really be into it  
> 2) even if she was into it (which I haven't made up my mind on), she doesn't have as much experience with the bats, so I figured it made sense that she wouldn't make it to the finals. 
> 
> That and I realized that having them possibly fight each other would give them uncomfortable reminders of their fight in 358 Days and a potential flashback, and I originally wrote this chapter for happy fluff.


	31. Silence Will Fall

#### The Land of Departure – Residential Wing Atrium

#### August 31, 2015

Terra smiled as he looked up from the book he was reading at the blue-haired woman sitting beside him. With Ven spending the night at his parents' house, the two older Keyblade wielders had the castle to themselves. Since Terra was a horrible cook, they'd gone out to eat at a quiet little bistro in Radiant Garden followed by an evening swim in Atlantica. While he wished that Master Eraqus was still alive, the one thing he enjoyed about having the Land of Departure to themselves was that he and Aqua didn't have to be afraid of hiding their feelings for each other anymore.

They'd harbored crushes on each other for years, and they had both admitted it to each other years ago. But they'd never become a couple out of fear of how Master Eraqus would react. But then Aqua found their mentor's will in which he left a note informing them that they didn't need his approval to be together. They'd been dating ever since. He snapped back to the present when she leaned over and gave him a kiss. He blushed.  _I love her so much,_ he thought to himself as he put his hand on her shoulder.

 _But does she care about me as much as I do her? What if she doesn't want to do this? What if I screw up and forget my speech? What if…?_ His worries stopped as he put his free hand in his pocket.  _Don't worry, he told himself. Even though we weren't dating, we've been close for years now._ He took a deep breath to calm himself. He could do this.

"Hey Aqua," he began, fighting to keep his voice calm and hide how nervous he was. "I know we've been only been in a relationship for a little over a month, but I can't imagine my life without you in it." Aqua blushed at this pronouncement, although not nearly as much as Terra. The twenty-one year old was mentally cursing himself for sounding so cheesy.

"Thank you," Aqua replied warmly. "I feel the same way about you."  _Oh come on, Aqua,_ she chastised herself inwardly.  _That sounded so corny, and Terra knows it too!_ She was unaware that Terra was mentally beating himself up over the exact same thing, and vice versa.

"There's just one thing I want to ask you," he managed to say after a few more minutes of internal debate. Aqua looked at him curiously.

"What is it?" she asked. Terra took a deep breath as he turned his body, intending to slide smoothly off the couch in order to finish his question on one knee. But he failed miserably and fell off the couch, landing flat on his back on the carpet. A small velvet box tumbled out of his pocket as he made contact with the floor. Aqua couldn't help but chuckle as the absurdity of the situation, only for the laughter to die in her throat when Terra opened his mouth.

"Aqua will you marry me?" he blurted out. Aqua stared at him in shock as she registered in her mind what he'd said. As he pulled himself off the floor, he picked up the little velvet box and opened it to reveal an engagement ring. Silver and sapphire. Blue and silver to match the color scheme of her Keyblade and armor. For a moment, both of them simply stared at each other. One in stunned surprise and the other in a combination of fear and hope.

"Yes," she gasped as she pulled him up off the ground and gave him a long, passionate kiss on the lips. "I was willing to spend eternity in the Realm of Darkness because I couldn't let you die," she said when they finally came up for air. "Did you really think I'd say no when you finally asked?"

"I was really nervous about actually saying it out loud though," Terra replied. "I had a whole speech prepared and everything. That was so embarrassing."

"It was still really sweet," she reassured him with another kiss. "I love you, Terra. And nothing will ever change that."

"I love you too, Aqua," he whispered back as they came up for air once more. "I love you so much." They both smiled as they broke apart long enough to make their way into Terra's bedroom and close the door. They told Ventus the news when he came home the following morning, and their youngest friend simply offered his congratulations and asked when the wedding would be. And why he had to find out thanks to the lack of a tie on the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone wondering their ages, Terra's 21, and Aqua turned 20 shortly after the end of The Xehanort War.
> 
> And no, Terra and Aqua did not have sex. Ven just came home and went looking around the castle for them, opened the door to Terra's room, saw them on the bed and immediately assumed that they did. I thought it would be a funny way to end the penultimate chapter.


	32. The First Day

#### Twilight Town – High School Auditorium

#### September 1, 2015

Namine fidgeted nervously as she, Roxas, and Xion sat in the bleachers among all the other incoming freshmen at Twilight Town High School. Today was the first day of school, and the first period of the day was the new student orientation. Classes would start tomorrow, and today was reserved for the new students picking up their schedules, paying the various fees (She and Xion doubted they'd end up going to sports games, but Roxas figured having a student pass to get into school games would come in handy when they needed to get out of the house for an evening), and sitting through the welcome assembly.

Personally, she thought it was overkill, but who was she to judge. Between being held captive by the Organization and living with DiZ, she'd never really understood the purpose of something like school. A look at Xion's face told her that the replica was just as baffled by the concept as she was. Only Roxas looked like he remotely knew what was going on, and that was only because he at least knew how school worked from his fake memories in the simulated Twilight Town DiZ had forced him into. Hayner, Pence, and Olette promised to help the three of them out, but today they were on their own.

Speaking of DiZ, however, she'd finally gotten the chance to speak with him about all the verbal abuse he'd heaped on her in the year that she'd lived with him in the mansion. Ansem the Wise apologized profusely for his actions, but that didn't mean she forgave him yet. He may have had a change of heart and regretted the things he'd said, but that didn't make the pain go away. She'd spent the majority of her short existence being told how she didn't have any right to exist and how worthless she was. Her shattered self-esteem wouldn't repair itself simply because the man responsible said he was sorry.

But Vanitas, Riku, and everyone else in the support group had been right. Working up the courage to face him had been a big step on her path to healing. Now she could finally stop dwelling on the past and focus on her future. Movement down at the bottom of the bleachers brought her focus back to the present.  _What do cheerleaders have to do with freshmen orientation?_ She wondered to herself as a group of girls dressed in brightly colored outfits and carrying pom poms strode out into the center of the audience.

Half an hour later, the orientation finally ended, and the three of them carefully made their way through the crowd of students stampeding down the bleachers towards where different staff members were waiting to break people up into groups and take everyone on a tour of the school. When they got to the ground, the three of them checked the tickets they'd been given indicating what group they were in before looking for the corresponding sign. Xion and Namine were in the same group together, while Roxas was placed in a different group.

As the two girls made their way through the crowd of students toward the faculty member holding the sign for their group, Namine was glad that Xion was in the same group as her. Roxas was a good friend, but Namine enjoyed hanging out with other girls. That was why she got along so well with Olette and Xion. Although Namine had been nervous about how the replica felt about her, Xion reassured Kairi's Nobody that she didn't have any ill will towards her over what had happened back when Sora was in his coma.

"My death was going to happen no matter what any of us did," Xion had said. "You and Riku helped me come to terms with that and make the time I had matter." Namine had felt much better at that, and the two of them had been firm friends ever since. As they walked in the back of the group listening to the tour guide spout off trivia about the school and its history, Xion leaned over to Namine and whispered in her ear.

"I think the tour would be a lot shorter if they just focused on what each building is for," she remarked quietly. "All this trivia doesn't mean anything to me." Namine nodded her head in agreement.

"I guess it's just one of those things we never really learned before when we were just Nobodies," she whispered back. "It'll take some getting used to, but I wouldn't trade any of the stuff we think is weird or pointless for anything."

"Me neither," Xion replied softly. "Having an actual life as more than the Organization's pet experiment is worth a little initial confusion." Namine whispered that she agreed before the tour guide's voice rose as he finally stopped talking about trivia. The two girls listened silently from the back as the man went back to outlining where things were. Yes, they and Roxas were quickly learning that there was more to being human than simply having a heart. While they all struggled with basic details of adjusting to society (Lea, Hayner, Pence, and Olette explained everything the best they could, but they couldn't really cover every aspect of life in only a month) to varying degrees, they all agreed that their new life was worth all the confusion at the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since we hadn't had a lot of POV chapters from Namine, I'd decided to make this last chapter be from her perspective, and to give her some interaction with Xion, since they only ever had one conversation together in 358/2 Days. 
> 
> And yes, the title of this final chapter is a deliberate call back to Roxas' six days in the fake Twilight Town in the prologue of Kingdom Hearts 2.


End file.
